The Next Generation High-Speed Rail Technology Demonstration Program (“Next Generation Program”), described in detail in Chapter 5, seeks to demonstrate technology that will facilitate the incremental development of high-speed rail (HSR) passenger service that has air or road competitive door-to-door trip times between major city pairs and reliable, high quality, cost-effective service.
Mobility between major urban areas is a vital component of American society. However, highways and airport facilities on vital intercity corridors around the nation are suffering unacceptable congestion as travel demand grows. Construction of new limited access highways can cost $40 million per lane mile, and airport expansion is often not feasible because of surrounding development. High-speed ground transportation systems such as those built in Europe and Japan provide superb service quality, but implementation of such systems in the United States has been prevented by high costs and the difficulties associated with acquiring new rights-of-way.
Existing railroad routes provide an attractive, practical alternative to meet present and future mobility demands in corridors connecting major urban areas up to 400 miles apart. Presently, technology is available to operate trains at speeds of 110-125 miles per hour, and potentially up to 150 miles per hour on existing infrastructure—as on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. These technologies can provide competitive trip times on the order of three hours in selected corridors.
The Congress, in the Swift Rail Development Act of 1994, found the development of suitable technologies for the implementation of high-speed rail to be in the national interest and authorized the FRA to undertake such technology development. The Next Generation Program was established to undertake that challenge. Activities are underway in program elements where development and demonstration activities have a high potential return on investment when upgrade programs are implemented.
The Next Generation Program includes the following four elements:
- Positive Train Control - Demonstrations of systems suited to maximizing the capacity of railroads to carry a mix of high-speed passenger, commuter, and freight trains with minimal risk of collision and at considerably lower cost than conventional railroad signal and control systems.
- High-Speed Non-Electric Locomotive - Demonstration of a locomotive to achieve the speed and acceleration capability of electric trains without the expensive infrastructure of railroad electrification.
- High-Speed Grade Crossing Protection - Development and demonstrations, including barrier systems and innovative warning devices, to provide nearly the same security as grade separations but at much lower cost.
- Track and Structures Technology - Demonstrations of cost effectively increasing route capacity and/or improving performance of the infrastructure on existing corridors to be sufficiently robust to permit shared heavy freight and high-speed passenger use with satisfactory ride quality.
The Next Generation Program is built around these concepts to make available the new technology and devices that are particularly suited to applications for near-term implementation of high-speed rail by the states. Federal sponsorship of the program is necessary because no single State represents a large enough market to justify the necessary technology development efforts. The railroad supply industry perceives the market to be too small to independently fund technology development costs until several corridor upgrades are underway to substantiate a market of reasonable size.
The Next Generation Program is based on partnerships with suppliers of technology, railroads, and State governments. By working with State and railroad partners, a real-world environment is provided for the application of these technologies, preparing the way for a smooth introduction when States are ready to implement their systems. States that are now implementing incremental upgrade programs are targeting service speeds of 110 to 125 miles per hour for the near future, primarily on existing track used for freight operations.
The Next Generation Program first received significant funding in FY 1995. During the past six years, significant advances were accomplished in each of the major program areas, as separate technology and demonstration pursuits. For the next five years, the strategic direction of the program will be to complete the major projects begun in each of the four program elements, and upgrade demonstration corridors on an entire-corridor basis to validate the concept that high quality intercity rail passenger service can produce the revenue needed to sustain its own operations. High-speed rail service can be realized only if one or more corridors achieve short trip times with safe, attractive, and reliable service on a sustained, daily basis.
The program element descriptions are based on actual FY 2001 and 2002 appropriations and the President’s FY 2003 Budget Request. Activities described as occurring in Fiscal Years 2004 and 2005 are contingent upon funds being appropriated to carry them out.
