HOW TO BUILD HIGH-SPEED RAIL ON THE NORTHEAST CORRIDOR
OVERVIEW
This interactive site brings the “How to Build High-Speed Rail on the Northeast Corridor” report to life. Originally published by the Transportation and Land Use Group at NYU’s Marron Institute and authored by Alon Levy, it presents new visuals and a condensed version of the full text. For the complete report, please visit the HTML version or download the PDF.
The report outlines a vision for high-speed rail from Boston to Washington, integrating intercity and commuter services to shorten trips, boost frequency, and improve operations through coordinated schedules and targeted infrastructure investment.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Proposed budget
$12.5B in infrastructure and $4.5B for trainsets, building on existing commitments
Trip times
1:56 travel times between New York–Boston and New York–Washington
Frequencies
High-speed service every 10 minutes near NYC; every 15 near Boston and DC
Improved Service
Frequent, all-day commuter rail integrated with intercity service
The report outlines a vision for high-speed rail from Boston to Washington, integrating intercity and commuter services to shorten trips, boost frequency, and improve operations through coordinated schedules and targeted infrastructure investment.
- We plan intercity and commuter rail improvements with coordinated timetables in tandem. The $12.5 billion figure for infrastructure includes $3 billion in electrification and high platforms to speed up the commuter trains using the NEC, so that faster intercity trains don’t get stuck behind them.
- We integrate infrastructure planning, rolling stock purchases, and the timetable. This means rebuilding the timetable from the ground up based on simple, repeating patterns. Where it’s possible to avoid adding new tracks for capacity through better scheduling, we do so. Where it’s not, we propose strategic bypasses and overtakes, aiming to boost both speed and capacity where possible.
- We separate out new infrastructure planning from infrastructure maintenance and renewal, which are routine, regular capital projects and should not be funded as if they were megaprojects.
- We employ European technical standards, which are generally legal per American regulations but not used in American railroading tradition. These allow us to propose systems that speed up the slowest sections near major stations, lifting the worst slow zones on the NEC. These also limit the costs of necessary repairs to the aging NEC catenary, using cutting-edge technology to avoid having to replace poles at high cost.