Looks like high speed rail is in the water this week. Yesterday I wrote about Capital Investment: National High Speed Rail and about Transportation Bandwidth. Today, the New York Sun has another story to add to the pile, Congress Eyes a Rocket Train To Washington:

If passed, the legislation would require the U.S. Department of Transportation to solicit requests for proposals from private developers to create a two-hour “door-to-door” high-speed rail service.
Rep. Michael Castle, a Republican of Delaware who co-authored the legislation, said gaining the support of Mr. Mica, the ranking Republican on the transportation panel, was key.
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“If you can get it to two hours, or even close to that, you are going to see that many more people shifting to this usage. There is just an enormous amount of traffic out there,” he said. The legislation calls for an appropriation of $14 billion over five years.
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One unresolved element of the legislation is the role of Amtrak. America’s federally subsidized coast-to-coast passenger railroad has fallen on hard times. In 2005, it was nearly forced into bankruptcy when the Bush administration threatened to eliminate the $1.2 billion subsidy to Amtrak, and the system is consistently plagued by delays.
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A spokesman for Mr. Mica, Justin Harclerode, said Amtrak could participate but that the congressman envisions creating high-speed service that would be independent of existing commuter and freight lines, which would likely require new tunnels and ridding existing tracks of curves to facilitate speed.
“Let’s throw it out there and see if we get some good proposals and see if they work,” Mr. Harclerode said.
A professor of civil engineering at the University of Delaware, Arnold Kerr, said the idea of creating entirely new tracks to service a high-speed train did not make financial sense. Mr. Kerr said existing infrastructure could support a high-train.
“The question is how do they plan to finance it and how do they plan to run it and what will be the role of Amtrak? You cannot build a high-speed line out of nothing, they have the knowhow and the expertise so they have to be tied in.”

An aside: I never understand why the media doesn’t publish Bill numbers they report on – it is as if they want to deliberately obscure finding more about the Bill in question. The Bill by the way is H. R. 5644, To provide for competitive development and operation of high-speed rail corridor projects. (Introduced in House).
This Bill, like Clean Skies or Healthy Forests before it, have less to do with creating a successful regional high speed rail system than augmenting, or destroying, Amtrak.
The Sun fails to substantiate their claim that system is consistently plagued by delays, resorting to Truthiness. According to Amtrak’s FY 2008 Budget Needs Acela is over 85% on time and only the Congressionally-mandated long-distance routes are the chronically late lines (30% on time rate due primarily to Amtrak not owning the Right of Way). Additionally, the same trope about Amtrak being subsidized while implying road and air travel is not subsidized is plain tiring.
This Bill is fundamentally tilting at windmills. Is Rep. Mica trying to kill high speed rail in this country? Not having Amtrak involved and proposing buying and creating new right of way in the most densely packed region in America is a fool’s errand. Mr. Mica’s proposal not including the one organization, besides the MTA, which has built and run successful passenger rail service in America strikes me as a very un-serious proposal. And strikes me as a covert tool to eliminate Amtrak. Elimination of under-performing routes and/or secure rights of way which Amtrak solely own and control would do more to create a network of higher speed rail throughout the country then creating another organization whole cloth.
But this Bill isn’t about creating a network of high speed rail throughout the region much less the country. This Bill is about destroying Amtrak and privatizing passenger rail service. We have a proposal from a Republican Congressman, profiled in the New York Sun (a bastion of Libertarian thought) which expressly cuts Amtrak out of the picture in order to solicit requests for proposals from private developers. Quoth the spokesman for the Republican Congressman, Let’s throw it out there and see if we get some good proposals and see if they work. That’s right: Let’s throw it out there – nice. If you needed more proof that this is just a naked attempt to privatize Amtrak, take a look at the Subcommittee’s GOP press release:

This proposal will unleash the investment potential of the private sector, essential to addressing how this nation is going to finance our tremendous infrastructure needs.

Besides Republican’s desire to privatize and deregulate everything (hello Enron?) why is a Florida Republican interested in Northeastern Railroad? According to Open Secrets, Rep. Mica has raised $118,950 from the railroad industry from 1999-2008 yet also raised $409,527 from the airline industry, which isn’t surprising as he is the Ranking Member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Regardless of the motives, this Bill is rather short on specifics and rather long on promises. Especially concerning funding sources and administration. You can’t just throw it out there and see if it works.