We’d like faster trains, please, Amtrak Joe

Connecticut loves trains, as do our neighbors. We in the Northeast have the highest train ridership in the country. And yet as our railroads age, money for superfast new trains gets offered to states that don’t need or want them as much as we do, like Florida. We’ll take it.

President “Amtrak Joe” Biden loves trains too — so much so that he wants to spend $ 80 billion on them, including money to upgrade old tracks in the Northeast. We welcome every penny that goes toward our creaky rail lines. But we could also use truly highspeed ones. Where better to put bullet trains than here, in the heart of the nation’s busiest railroad corridor?

Agroup of transportation experts and civic leaders is pushing what they call North Atlantic Rail, a train that would glide from New York to Boston in 100 minutes, stopping at New Haven and Hartford. It’s a tough sell, given the cost ($ 105 billion), the timeline ( 20 years) — and the bungling of high- speed train projects such as California’s.

But what a vision.

This super- high- speed train could link Connecticut to Manhattan and Boston almost as quickly as a plane but certainly more reliably ( and comfortably) and with less pollution.

Instead of going the current route, this super- fast train would forge a few new one. It would go from New York City partway up Long Island and then over to New Haven through a tunnel to be dug under the Sound. From there, it would move north to Hartford, east to Providence and thence to Boston.

At this point, you might be asking: Aren’t Amtrak’s Acela trains high- speed? Yes, but not quite speedy enough. Its trains can reach 150 mph but average only 66 mph on the curvy tracks between New York and Boston. North Atlantic Rail, by going a different route, promises to save two hours on that travel time. New Haveners could be in New York in an hour.

Yes, a new high- speed rail line will be expensive to build. ( Since when are highways cheap? And what about those airline subsidies?) High- speed rail is worth the investment when it’s in a population- dense area. The northeastern United States is the perfect spot. That’s one reason the Northeast Corridor is Amtrak’s most profitable line.

Arail tunnel won’t cause the environmental risks that critics fear. New tunnel boring machines can drill far below a seabed, deep enough to cause no disturbance to the floor of Long Island Sound.

Neither will the proposed North Atlantic Rail route do harm to the charming communities that fiercely resisted — and rightly so — a nutty proposal five years ago to run high- speed rail through the center of Old Lyme and other historic neighborhoods. The North Atlantic Rail plan avoids those neighborhoods.

We also embrace Gov. Ned Lamont’s more shovel- ready plan , released this week, to shave significant time off rail service by upgrading what we already have, straightening curves on the existing line, fixing old bridges and modernizing the signal system.

Can both be done? Gov. Lamont’s plan would help dozens of communities along all of Connecticut’s rail lines. North Atlantic Rail would serve the high- speed crowd that wants to get to New York in a hurry. It would be an enormous boon for Hartford and New Haven.

The United States has fallen far behind Europe and Asia in the superfast train race. North Atlantic Rail offers the Biden administration the best way to catch up.

High- speed rail is worth the investment when it’s in a population- dense area. The northeastern United States is the perfect spot.