Biden Administration Unveils $8 Billion for Train Projects, With First U.S. High-Speed Rail Line
Photo Credit: A rendering of a Brightline West train speeding by traffic. (Brightline West) Brightline West
Skift Take
President Biden is living up to his nickname Amtrak Joe with some big dollars for new passenger rail service across the country.
Las Vegas travelers are a $3 billion step closer to speeding through the Mojave Desert on a high-speed train linking Sin City with Southern California.
Brightline West's Las Vegas-Southern California line is one of the 10 passenger rail projects across the U.S. that received $8.2 billion in federal grants Friday. Other projects include high-speed rail in California as well as new and upgraded corridors in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The Federal Railroad Administration also handed out another $34.5 million in planning grants to study new or expanded rail service on 69 corridors.
"If you’ve ever seen the standard of passenger rail service in Japan or Germany … and come home and said ‘Why can’t we have these nice things?’ This is the beginning of the answer to that," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. "Help is on the way to make sure Americans have access to just as good rail service or better."
Buttigieg
