DIVE BRIEF

High-speed rail gains steam as Atlanta, Dallas aim to come aboard

Published May 23, 2023

Dan Zukowski
Reporter

Dive Brief:
• Speakers from California, Georgia and Texas outlined their plans for more high-speed rail projects at a conference in Washington, D.C., last week as a growing number of states and cities are looking into ways to bring bullet trains to their communities.
• The 2021 infrastructure law provided up to $12 billion over five years for rail projects outside the Northeast Corridor, which can include new intercity passenger rail service such as high-speed trains.
• “The president wants to go faster on rail. He wants more rail to help with the climate and he wants to produce a lot of jobs and he sees high-speed rail as a part of that,” said White House Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu at the conference.

Dive Insight:
The nation’s two most prominent high-speed rail projects are the California effort to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco — the first segment of which is under construction — and the proposed Brightline West project between Las Vegas and Southern California. Both are looking to tap the nearly $4.6 billion in federal funds available for the 2022-2023 fiscal years. ... But studies and planning are underway for several other projects that participants described at the conference, organized by the US High Speed Rail Association.

Clement Solomon, division director at the Georgia Department of Transportation, said the agency is looking at routes including Atlanta-Charlotte, North Carolina; Atlanta-Savannah, Georgia; and Atlanta-Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Chattanooga project received a final Tier 1 environmental impact statement and record of decision from the Federal Railroad Administration, while the Georgia DOT is conducting a Tier 1 EIS for the Charlotte route, which it hopes will someday connect with high-speed rail lines to Washington, D.C.

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