Northeast Corridor High-Speed Rail Act

Northeast Corridor High-Speed Rail Act - Designates the Northeast Corridor as a high-speed rail corridor eligible for grants for high-speed rail capital projects.

[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4838 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4838

 To make the Northeast Corridor eligible for high-speed rail corridor 
development grants under section 26106 of title 49, United States Code.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2010

Mr. Castle (for himself, Mr. Capuano, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. Sestak, Mr. King 
 of New York, Mr. Cummings, Mr. Holt, Mr. Ruppersberger, Mr. Courtney, 
Mrs. Lowey, and Mr. Pascrell) introduced the following bill; which was 
     referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To make the Northeast Corridor eligible for high-speed rail corridor 
development grants under section 26106 of title 49, United States Code.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Northeast Corridor High-Speed Rail 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Northeast ``mega-region'' between Boston and 
        Washington, DC, is the most densely populated area of the 
        United States, and has consistently suffered from airport 
        delays, traffic jams, and railway congestion.
            (2) In fiscal year 2009 Amtrak's Acela Express and 
        Northeast Regional services carried nearly 10 million 
        passengers on the Northeast Corridor rail line.
            (3) The Northeast Corridor rail line connects the five most 
        populated cities on the east coast, stretching from Boston, MA, 
        to Washington, DC, via Providence, RI, and is a critical link 
        in President Obama's vision for a national high-speed rail 
        network.
            (4) In 1991 Congress authorized eleven high-speed rail 
        corridors. Of the eleven, three were designated by Congress and 
        seven were designated by the Secretary of Transportation, while 
        there remains one undesignated corridor.
            (5) The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 
        2008 establishes a high-speed rail corridor development grant 
        program and restricts eligibility for this program to projects 
        located on a federally designated high-speed rail corridor.
            (6) The Northeast Corridor has not been designated as a 
        high-speed rail corridor.
            (7) Despite the lack of Federal designation, Amtrak's Acela 
        line, which runs along the Northeast Corridor, is our country's 
        current ``high-speed'' rail line, with top operating speeds of 
        150 miles per hour. While this top speed begins to approach the 
        international standard for high-speed trains, Amtrak's high-
        speed service on the Northeast Corridor averages only 82 mph 
        between Washington, DC, and New York, and only 66 mph between 
        New York and Boston due to infrastructure and equipment 
        constraints. Considerable investments are needed to overcome 
        these constraints.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS.

    Section 26106 of title 49, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (b)(2), by inserting ``and the Northeast 
        Corridor'' after ``of title 23''; and
            (2) in subsection (c) by striking ``capital projects in 
        high-speed rail corridors'' and inserting ``high-speed rail 
        capital projects in corridors''.
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