donate now

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

High Speed Rail Congressional Hearings

house Transportation Committee Hearing - may 6

On May 6, 2021, the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials held a Congressional hearing on High Speed Rail. "When Unlimited Potential Meets Limited Resources: The Benefits and Challenges of High Speed Rail and Emerging Rail Technologies" explores the opportunities and limitations associated with high speed rail and emerging technologies, including regulatory oversight, technology readiness, project cost, and available federal resources.
CHAIRMAN PAYNE
"High-speed rail could be the technology that fully unlocks the potential of passenger rail travel in this country," said Subcommittee Chair Donald Payne, D-N.J.
CHAIRMAN DEFAZIO
"Between 1949 and 2017, more than $2 trillion in federal funds have been invested in our nation's highways and over $777 billion in aviation. In contrast to highways and aviation, between 1971 and 2020, $96 billion in federal funds have been invested in Amtrak." "Where has the federal government been? The Chinese are investing over $100 Billion each year! Investing once every other decade a small amount of money is not going to get us there. I'd like to see larger sums than has been proposed by the Biden Administration in the high speed rail category," said Chairman DeFazio
ANDY KUNZ
"Building our national high speed rail network should be as important and historic as Eisenhower building the interstate highway system back in the 1950s, which created the framework for our continued prosperity we all enjoy today," said Andy Kunz
full hearing link
"To me it is clear that the development of a high speed rail system not only in my state of Texas, but across this great nation would provide tremendous economic and environmental benefits, while simultaneously decreasing traffic congestion in America's cities and metropolitan areas." said Congresswoman Johnson
"If we had better, faster train service, absolutely the demand would follow, and that's true in many parts of the country." said Congressman Malinowski
"I especially look forward to the future of high speed rail and how its going to increase our competitiveness, equity, and economic development." said Congresswoman Strickland
"When we looked at the Cascadia high speed rail project up in the Pacific Northwest, they determined that to build the high speed rail line would cost half as much as expanding the highway by just one lane in each direction. And of course if you just expand the highway, no one goes any faster." said Congressman Moulton
"We have to start coming together and thinking about how we get this done, and not why it should or shouldn't be done, because its clear it needs to be done. There's no better reason to do it than to create opportunity, to make our environment cleaner and healthier, and to save lives." said Congresswoman Newman
"If we do this right, investments in high speed rail can improve connections between communities, provide better access to jobs, housing, and other social services, rebuild America's manufacturing base, and create good paying jobs that will depend on that manufacturing, while giving us a cleaner, more efficient way to move people as we tackle the climate crisis. That's all pretty exciting to me." said Congressman Huffman
advocacy letter
Sign up for our weekly newsletter
sign up for news