Race is on to claim federal rail funding
If we can’t have flying cars, maybe we can start commuting underwater. Some Northeast design experts and business leaders have brainstormed as a superteam for years to reimagine the future of transportation. With President Joe Biden holding out the carrot of a $2.3 trillion infrastructure bill, they are anxious to seize the moment to reinvent regional transit, including a bullet train from Boston to New York City that would make the journey in 100 minutes or less.
The North Atlantic Rail Initiative tries to do what hasn’t been done for generations: reinvent our transportation infrastructure. Its plan does what anyone would do in trying to see the bigger picture: It considers how to transverse the shortest distance between two points. The result is a bold pitch to carve a 16-mile tunnel under Long Island Sound for a high-speed train to travel between New Haven and Long Island.
The initiative may need to draft more members (notably those in Congress) to champion such plans. U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) summoned his years of defending the integrity of Long Island Sound as he admitted to “initial skepticism.” Members of the Initiative, however, insist technology would not compromise marine life, which would have to be a priority.
Blumenthal also blanched at the notion of forming a federal and state partnership rather than leaving operations in the hands of Amtrak. Forming the North Atlantic Rail Corporation may create as many waves as an underwater tunnel. It may be the wrong name (someone wasn’t thinking about the acronym “NARC”), but reframing oversight needs to be on the table as well.
New England is at a competitive disadvantage. An existing initiative for a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is desperate for funding. For even the casual traveler, it conjures fulfillment of a much sexier service than any New Haven to Long Island run. There’s also competition for funding from the likes of Las Vegas.
In this high-stakes poker game, though, the initiative does have a hot player. Robert Yaro headed the Regional Plan Association in Manhattan, worked on the new Tappan Zee Bridge. Yaro also recalls pitching a high-speed rail plan in the White House a decade ago, inspiring then Vice President Biden to declare, “Damn it. I’ve been waiting 30 years for this.”
None of this, of course, is any closer to reality than cars commuting in the clouds. But a regional approach that gets New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island collaborating is always welcome. As the information superhighway routinely accelerates, transportation on the ground just keeps slowing.
After a year of inertia, it’s time to get people moving, both faster and more efficiently. Governors, mayors, members of Congress, transportation officials and others won’t agree on every detail, but they need to start by deciding if the time has finally come to go big or stay home.
Yaro also recalls pitching a high-speed rail plan in the White House a decade ago, inspiring then Vice President Biden to declare, “Damn it. I’ve been waiting 30 years for this.”