Amtrak offered $ 80 billion in upgrades, but modernization efforts may cost more

• While Amtrak is gearing up for a wave of spending, experts say modernizing the American system can be more expensive.
• Biden last week announced $ 80 billion in Amtrak financing as part of his $ 2 trillion plan.
• See more stories on the Insider business page.

As President Joe Biden last week described the $ 80 billion in financing for Amtrak in its $ 2 trillion infrastructure package, the rail operator has published a map showing all the changes it plans to make over the next 14 years.

There were new high-level routes to Las Vegas and Phoenix in the west, and Nashville and Montgomery in the south. But experts say the most important part of the plan is to modernize existing routes – those that have been in ruins for years.

Few are those who would not recognize that the country’s railways, both Amtrak and local ones, are going through difficult times. The USA is consistently ranked below other countries in its rail infrastructure. China, Japan and other countries have invested in high-speed trains in the past few decades, which are more efficient than anything in the United States.

The United States’ most notable high-speed rail project, for example, a train that was supposed to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, had its budget cut again and again. That route was included in the map released by Amtrak this week, which details how it expects U.S. routes to be in 2035.

Amtrak

The United States has historically not placed as much funding on its rail system as its European or Asian counterparts, said Allan Zarembski, professor and director of the University of Delaware’s Railway Engineering and Safety Program.

“This project will certainly help – but it may not be enough on its own, as it does not address the long-term issue of ongoing funding for public passenger systems,” said Zarembski on Thursday.

Biden’s plan will certainly face opposition from conservatives in Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell and Congressman Kevin McCarthy said last week that the bill was full of unnecessary spending.

The bill “[f]AST tracks $ 80 billion in new grants for Amtrak and its unions, although Congress provided billions in aid to Amtrak last year, “McCarthy said in a statement denouncing” Bidenomics “.

McConnell said that Biden’s plan is full of “extreme left priorities”.

John Minchillo / AP Photo

Over the years, academics and researchers have published a series of reports on the United States’ rail system, most of which came to the same conclusion: More funding would be needed to modernize them to the new global standard.

A team of researchers at George Mason University, for example, published a 2019 analysis of trains in the Northeastern United States, compared to their worldwide counterparts.

To make the northeastern corridor between Washington, DC and New York City as reliable, energy efficient and safe as Alstom’s French trains, Amtrak would have to invest $ 164 million per mile, the researchers wrote.

This would total $ 37 billion for a single US route, which would not include its annual operating cost of $ 570 million. That would be almost half of the expenses allocated as part of Biden’s bill.

Comparing rail networks from country to country is a difficult task, in part because good systems depend on geography. Even within the United States, rail corridors have varied uses. Passengers flock to Acela in the northeast corridor, while visionaries relax in the glass-roofed cars that wind through Glacier National Park in the northwest.

But most U.S. rail routes were “legacy” systems created by failed 19th-century railroads, said Murray Rowden, global head of infrastructure at Turner & Townsend, a New York company.

There is a growing investment gap between what states are willing to pay and what railroads need. A plan like Biden’s can begin to make up for these budget deficits.

“States always have their ups and downs in their budget cycles when trying to balance their priorities, with the main focus for most transit agencies in keeping their infrastructure in a ‘good state’,” added Rowden.