New U.S. President Joe Biden is a long-time railfan, and a regular Amtrak commuter between Washington, DC and Wilmington, Delaware through his whole career in Congress, so it’s widely expected his infrastructure plans will be friendly to rail upgrades and expansion.
But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg isn’t ready to say yet whether the North Atlantic Rail Project will make it onto the list of projects to be funded with Federal help when the Administration’s infrastructure plans go to Congress.
NARP is arguably the most audacious rail plan in years, and one of the most expensive: a plan to cut travel time between NYC and Boston to 90 minutes by tunneling under Long Island Sound to shorten the route and avoid freight-congested tracks now in use. The green line below shows the proposed route, while the blue line, which would also be upgraded, is the existing route.
The project’s planners, an alliance of seven state governments, say the cost would run to about $105 billion over twenty years. The project is in essence the north leg of projects that would also replace tunnels under the Hudson River which act as a chokepoint on trains coming into New York from the south. Between Washington and New York, there are also plans to upgrade Amtrak’s line.
Travelling on Train Routes would open the east coast to tourists, like myself from England , who like to travel without the hassle of booking a flight.