Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act - High-speed Rail Corridors

High-speed Rail Corridors

The legislation also called for the designation of up to five high-speed rail corridors. The options were studied for several months, and announced in October 1992. The first four were announced by United States Secretary of Transportation Andrew Card, while the last was announced by Federal Railroad Administration head Gil Carmichael.

• October 15, 1992: The Midwest high-speed rail corridor with three links from Chicago, Illinois to Detroit, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• October 16, 1992: The Florida high-speed rail corridor linking Miami with Orlando and Tampa.
• October 19, 1992: The California high-speed rail corridor linking San Diego and Los Angeles with the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento via the San Joaquin Valley.
• October 20, 1992: The Southeast high-speed rail corridor connecting Charlotte, North Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C..
• October 20, 1992: The Pacific Northwest high-speed rail corridor linking Eugene and Portland, Oregon with Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

However, there was not significant funding attached to these announcements: $30 million had been allocated to several states by 1997 to improve grade crossings, but that was a very tiny amount in comparison to the billions required for a true high-speed network. Aside from a few places in California and the Chicago–Detroit Line, most areas outside the Northeast Corridor continued to be limited to 79 mph (127 km/h) until $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was distributed in January 2010.