State Listings

What is high-speed rail? Of all the proposed corridors in the United States, the speeds that constitute "high" vary as much as the projects themselves. In California, high-speed rail planners are proposing to operate trains at speeds up to 220 mph on dedicated right of way. In many other regions, such as the Midwest and Southeast, high-speed rail plans call for upgrading existing intercity passenger-rail lines to operate trains at speeds up to 110 mph. Meanwhile, in states such as Vermont, topography constraints restrict "high speed" to about 59 mph in some areas.

In 1997, the Federal Railroad Administration issued a report, "High Speed Ground Transportation for America," that defines high-speed rail as follows:

"High-speed ground transportation (HSGT) is self-guided intercity passenger ground transportation — by steel-wheel railroad or magnetic levitation — that is time-competitive with air and/or auto for travel markets in the approximate range of 100 to 500 miles. This is a market-driven, performance-based definition of HSGT. It recognizes that total trip time (including access to and from stations), rather than speed, per se, influences passengers' choices among transport options in a given market, and that travelers evaluate each mode not in isolation, but in relation to the performance of the other available choices.

Andrew Wood, deputy director of delivery for the Washington State Department of Transportation, puts it more simply: "You need to improve the end-to-end journey time; that's more important than speed. It's about how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B."

Following is a state-by-state list of all high-speed rail plans — whether defined by higher-speed service to improve travel times or a brand-new railroad featuring speedy bullet trains — in the United States. The listings also include information on the applications that states either have or are planning to submit to the FRA under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. For a description of the various stimulus program funding tracks, please see page 7 of the FRA's High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Interim Program Guidance, available by clicking here.