Both houses of Congress have passed transportation bills pledging over $10 billion for Amtrak and high speed rail connecting New York City and Washington D.C. The Senate and House are now in conference regarding the details of the final bill. [Summary of the bill here.]
Vermont completed Phase I of a Boston to Montreal high-speed rail study in 2003, which found that there would be enough demand to support such a service. Phase II suffered a setback when New Hampshire decided to withdraw from the project. It is now back underway with Massachusetts as the partner; the current plans have the corridor passing through Springfield, Mass. to get into Vermont. Charlie Miller, Rail Planning Coordinator at VTrans, anticipates that a consultant for the Phase II study will be selected this fall. [View Phase I report here.]
Meanwhile, New Hampshire high-speed rail advocates are gathering public support to continue the Phase II route as originally planned through New Hampshire.
[Sources: Library of Congress Thomas database, Asbury Park Press, Masslive.com, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Boston Globe, Foster's Daily Democrat]
3 comments:
Would be nice to have low-speed rail service, from Vermont to Boston and to Montreal, now, while we wait (probably a _very_ long time) for the high-speed version.
Hi!
You should set up an RSS feed button on your blog. I'd like to follow you.
:)
Nathaly
We will get it done as soon as the Health Care Reform Bill passes, and maybe then generate revenue to start the project. I know I and many others would donate to a project to see three states before ending up in Montreal.
God Bless
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