NEC FUTURE is the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) comprehensive plan for the Northeast Corridor (NEC) from Washington, D.C., to Boston, MA. Through NEC FUTURE, the FRA has determined a long-term vision and investment program for the NEC, and completed a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). See the Record of Decision for a description of this vision, referred to as the Selected Alternative. The FRA will work with the NEC Commission, as well as states and railroads, on service development planning in support of this vision.
The NEC, the rail transportation spine of the Northeast region, is a key component of the region's transportation system and vital to its sustained economic growth. Today, the 457-mile NEC —anchored by Washington, D.C.'s Union Station in the south, New York's Pennsylvania Station in the center, and Boston's South Station in the north—is one of the most heavily traveled rail corridors in the world. The NEC is shared by intercity, commuter, and freight operations and moves more than 365 million passengers and 14 million car-miles of freight per year.
The NEC faces serious challenges, with century-old infrastructure, outdated technology, and inadequate capacity to meet current or projected travel demand. With similar capacity issues on the region's highways, and some of the most congested airports in the nation, the Northeast's economic future could be hampered by transportation constraints. NEC FUTURE creates a framework to address these challenges and defines the investments needed to improve passenger rail capacity and service through 2040 and beyond.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to consider the environmental consequences of proposed projects as part of their decision-making. NEPA provides the flexibility to assess projects in a staged approach known as �tiering.� Tiering addresses broad programs and issues in an initial (Tier 1) or programmatic level analysis, and analyzes site-specific, project-level (Tier 2) proposals and impacts in subsequent studies. Given the broad scope and complexity of the NEC FUTURE program, a tiered approach to the environmental review process was chosen. The Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assesses the corridor-wide impacts of proposed improvements to the NEC. More detailed Tier 2 environmental reviews will be needed to examine the potential impacts of the site-specific projects that are advanced following the Tier 1 EIS.
For more details on the environmental review process, refer to the Tier 1 EIS page.
The Service Development Plan (SDP) provides the business case for implementing the selected investment program from the Tier 1 EIS Record of Decision. It summarizes the benefits and costs of implementing the Selected Alternative, including an analysis of transportation network and economic effects, ridership, and funding and financing opportunities. Most importantly, the SDP provides the platform for implementation of the program by the federal government, states, the NEC Commission, and the NEC railroads.
The SDP for NEC FUTURE will include:
The information posted on this website includes hypertext links or pointers to information created and maintained by other public and/or private organizations. The FRA provides these links and pointers solely for information and convenience. When users select a link to an outside website, they are leaving the NEC FUTURE website and are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website. The FRA does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of information contained on a linked website, or endorse the organizations sponsoring linked websites, the views they express, or the products/services they offer. The FRA cannot authorize the use of copyrighted materials contained in linked websites and is not responsible for transmissions users receive from linked websites.
