President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are in Florida today to announce a funding package for a variety of high speed rail projects. In total, $7.9 billion in funding is being announced.
"Most of the money will go to improving existing rail service – paving the way for faster service, but not for the kind of bullet trains that zip along faster than 150 miles an hour in Japan and Europe. More than a billion dollars, for instance, will go to speed train travel between Chicago and St. Louis to up to 110 miles per hour – faster than it is now, but a far cry from the super fast trains that are increasingly common elsewhere.
But two of the largest pots of money being distributed are being devoted to actual bullet train projects."
One of the large projects is the $45 billion high speed rail line connecting Northern and Southern California. $2.25 billion will be directed to that project.
The other big project is an 84-mile link between Tampa and Orlando, which will receive $1.25.
The funding will focus on 13 corridors throughout the U.S.
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Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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