Pres. Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal—dubbed the American Jobs Plan—has earmarked some $80 billion to revive the dilapidated rail system in the U.S.
revitalizing the country’s crumbling infrastructure -- rail advocates see a new opportunity to transform a transportation system in the U.S. that they say is stuck in the past.Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and wife Dr. Jill Biden listen to supporters on a train campaign tour, Sept. 30, 2020, in Alliance, Ohio.
The president’s power is ultimately limited in creating new legislation that unlocks trillions of dollars, but Biden said heVice President-elect Joe Biden and President-elect Barack Obama wave to supporters from the back of a train, Jan. 17, 2009, in Edgewood, Md., en route from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. for their inauguration.released by the White House on the infrastructure proposal mentions “rail” a dozen times.
Since the late 1990s, Puentes said there has been a new focus on the environmental impact of car and plane travel as well as the role mass transit plays in connecting often lower-income individuals to jobs and opportunities in big cities with high rents. While Biden’s current infrastructure proposal specifically allocates that funds need to go towards Amtrak’s repair backlog, transportation policy experts note that this leaves some $42 billion for other rail projects -- including the possibility of investing in high-speed rail in the U.S.
“We were in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing and we presented it to the vice president and a bunch of luminaries, the federal railroad administrator and others,” Yaro recalled. “And the vice president, about 10 minutes after the presentation, pounded it on the table said ‘I have been waiting for this for 30 years, let's do it.’”
Japan’s Shinkansen and France’s Train a Grande Vitesse boast speeds of nearly 200 mph. China has said its high-speed trains can run at up to 220 mph.People walk near Yurakucho station while a Shinkansen, or high speed bullet train, arrives in Tokyo, April 10, 2021. While some may gawk at the cost, Yaro said he would argue that it’s something “we have to do if we're going to compete successfully with China.”of 18% in the first quarter of 2021, while the U.S. was still reeling from the pandemic-induced economic downturn.
Weinstein Agrawal added that massive infrastructure projects in the U.S. also face a litany of logistical hurdles and red tape -- something that was exposed further in California’s problem-plagued high-speed rail project.
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