Progressive Railroading Daily News
6/25/2009 High-Speed Rail

The Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) strategic plan for high-speed rail
is less of a plan and more of a vision, according to a recent U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The plan — which was mandated to be issued 60 days after the American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act was signed — outlines, in very general terms, how the
federal government may invest $8 billion in stimulus funds for high-speed rail
development, GAO said. However, the plan does not establish clear high-speed
rail goals for the federal government, other than a longer-term goal of
developing a national intercity passenger rail network, and doesn't define a
clear federal role for high-speed rail involvement other than providing recovery
act dollars, the report states.

For its part, the FRA has acknowledged that the strategic plan is a first step
and it intends to seek structured input from stakeholders and the public to
develop implementation strategies.

Meanwhile, the GAO report also noted that high-speed rail projects are costly,
take years to develop and build, and require substantial up-front public
investment, as well as potentially long-term operating subsidies. Determining
which, if any, high-speed rail projects may eventually be economically viable
will rest on factors such as ridership potential, costs and public benefits, the
report said.