Recent Streetsblog NYC posts about High-Speed Rail

High-Speed Rail: Do We Have the Will?

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 29, 2010 | No Comments

Tomorrow morning, I’m getting on a train from Washington, DC to New York. It’s going to take me almost three-and-a-half hours to get there. Sure, I could pay more for an Acela and get there in less than three hours. But why can’t it take 90 minutes? Yesterday, Amtrak unveiled a plan [PDF] to build […]

Siemens Takes Campaign for U.S. High-Speed Rail Straight to the Customer

By Roger Rudick | Aug 17, 2010 | No Comments

What’s the fastest way to travel between Los Angeles and the Bay Area? How about Tampa and Miami? Or Chicago and St. Louis? Siemens is using images of its 230-mph Velaro train to make a direct pitch to airline customers. Image: Ogilvy and Mather Any American would tell you to head for the airport. But […]

Low Expectations for High-Speed Rail at NYU Conference

By Noah Kazis | Jun 18, 2010 | 16 Comments

Does New York need bullet trains, or just better trains? Photo: Gilliamhome/Flickr Skeptics and boosters of high-speed rail traded views at NYU this Wednesday at a conference notable for the low expectations expressed by many panelists. While the much-heralded potential of 200 mph trains was discussed at length, many speakers, particularly those close to the […]

Expectations for High-Speed Rail Coming Down to Earth

By Elana Schor | May 5, 2010 | No Comments

Three months after the Obama administration announced the first winners of what it hopes will be the first of many federal grants to build U.S. high-speed rail networks, advocates and planners are settling in for a long battle to surmount the obstacles and unknowns that stand in the way of long-term bullet train development. If […]

New Report Maps a High-Speed Rail Link For Every Major U.S. City

By Elana Schor | Feb 9, 2010 | 9 Comments

Image: U.S. PIRG Now that the Obama administration has awarded $8 billion in high-speed rail grants to more than two dozen states, with $2.5 billion more coming soon, why not keep thinking big when it comes to bullet-train expansion? That’s the ethos of a new report released today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group […]

White House Budget Includes $530M for Local Sustainability, $1B for HSR

By Elana Schor | Feb 1, 2010 | No Comments

The White House officially unveiled its $3.8 trillion budget for the fiscal year 2011 this morning, seeking $1 billion to continue its high-speed rail investment and $530 million for the transportation leg of the Obama administration’s inter-agency push to promote sustainable planning on the local level. White House budget chief Peter Orszag challenged employees to […]