United States
with the existing NEC route. Super Express, Express, Keystone Express, nd Shore Line Express services are envisaged, dramatically increasing the range of services on offer and significantly reducing Washington - New York and New York - Boston journey times to 1h 34min compared with around 6h 40min for the entire trip at present.
Its latest document, The Amtrak Vision for the NEC, which was released in July, effectively combines the short and long-term vision of these two plans to create an NEC Capital Investment programme. The result is a strategy comprising five “stair steps” for
improvements to the corridor, taking into account the expected 25% increase in ridership since the 2010 documents were released, which would be implemented up to 2040. The plan is divided into two phases, beginning with improvements to existing infrastructure through NEC Upgrade (NEC-UP) which runs until 2025 and followed by NEC Next Generation High Speed Rail (NextGen) which involves building a brand new dedicated high- speed railway by 2040. The NEC-UP plan encompasses
infrastructure improvements to the existing NEC worth a total of $US 33.5bn, including $US 14.5bn for the New York to
Washington line and the branch to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, $US 3.9bn on the New York to Boston section including the Springfield, Massachusetts, branch and $US 14.9bn on the Gateway Programme from Newark to New York (see panel on p112). It begins with the purchase of 40 additional Acela trains to serve the route, and includes infrastructure improvements which will ultimately increase the frequency and average speeds of the existing hourly Acela service between Washington DC and Boston.
Amtrak aims to complete NEC-UP by 2025 at which point NexGen would begin, initially with Phase 1 of the new dedicated high-speed line from Washington to New York which would be completed by 2030 at a cost of $US 51.4bn. The $US 58bn New York - Boston segment would follow with operations beginning in 2040.
Financial support Securing financial support could
present the major hurdle to meeting the estimated overall $US 151bn cost of improving the NEC. Nevertheless, Amtrak is confident that this investment will pay off. It says that improving journey times, service frequency, reliability and passenger amenities such as new trains will attract new ridership, improve the image of rail transport, and most importantly increase revenues. It also says that the economic benefits of improving mobility for corridor residents and businesses will build the solid financial performance and public backing necessary to generate public and private investment in an enhanced NEC service.
Amtrak began working on an NEC Business and Financial plan in 2011 and Mr Andrew Wood, Amtrak’s chief of Next Generation Integration of HSR, NEC Infrastructure and Investment, told IRJ at the UIC World High Speed Congress in Philadelphia that the 2012 revised construction plan is designed with affordability in mind.
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“The new plan tries to get the annual funding requirement down to between $US 3bn and 4bn in the peak years of construction during the 2020s from the $US 10bn in the original plan, which was unfundable,” Wood says. “The new plan is also a phased project which will generate extra revenue which will be used to help fund later phases. The new projection sees an increase in annual revenue from $US 3.29bn to $US 4.68bn for 2040.”
IRJ September 2012
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