More High Speed Rail Money Given to States

The DOT has given 5 states more money to buy high speed rail trains. This latest round is for over $300 million in projects that are underway. Altogether over $700 has been awarded so far for trains to 6 states to buy 33 locomotives and 120 bi-level cars. The federal government has invested over $10 billion in high speed rail and extensions for suburban commuter rails. This award will also help grow jobs in the USA as all trains purchased must be manufactured stateside.

This expenditure will help move the USA closer to high speed rail service becoming a viable alternative. The state of Illinois expects to be able to purchase 7 trains with 48 cars for their projects. Chicago will be the Midwest hub with at least 2 high speed rail lines originating from that city. Below you can see that the States will be working to standardize the trains which will hopefully make the systems expandable and connectable in the future.

Illinois to receive influx of money for high-speed rail projects

Additionally, "States will be working together to identify a uniformed set of standards and develop some consistent specifications for all passenger trains that will be used," said Trigdell.

Here is a good article from cnet summarizing how all the high speed rail projects will be. Keep in mind Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio have pulled out of planned high speed train lines. The map included in the link above still gives a good idea of how far reaching the system could be in the future. While this would be a major step forward for the USA in high speed rail the speeds we would be getting would still pale in comparison to Europe and Asia. The biggest advantage will be to get some passenger rail service off of freight train lines that are owned by the freight lines. Often times these passenger trains are given the least priority and their speeds are limited to the other freight trains around them