Rep. Brown Statement on High Speed Rail

October 14, 2009 -- (Washington, DC) - The Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on high-speed rail in the United States. The dream of high-speed rail in America is finally coming true. In 2007, this subcommittee held a hearing to listen to the experiences of international operators and other countries in developing high-speed rail. Their advice was to invest, get a high-speed rail line operating, and once everyone saw it working they would want it for their area: Build it and they will come!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 laid that foundation. It included $8 billion for high-speed rail and $1.3 billion for Amtrak. The Fiscal Year 2010 Transportation Appropriations bill that passed the House included an additional $4 billion. And the surface transportation bill being developed by this Committee includes another $50 billion for development of high-speed rail corridors over the next six years.

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Since enactment of the Recovery Act, interest in high-speed rail has been phenomenal. The Federal Railroad Administration has received numerous applications from the states for development of high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects. These include 45 applications from 24 states totaling approximately $50 billion. They also received 214 applications from 34 states totaling $7 billion for corridor planning and smaller projects.

These numerous requests clearly indicate a very strong and growing interest in high-speed rail in the United States. They also make clear that the federal government needs to invest in high-speed rail in order to make the President and this Congress’ vision a reality, and we need to find a dedicated source of funding to do it. The private sector, including international operators, and foreign governments like Spain, Japan, and China aren’t going to help us if they don’t see a true commitment from the federal government to make high-speed rail a priority.

Beijing will spend $50 billion on high-speed rail this year alone, and the central government plans to spend another $250 billion over the next decade. By 2020, China will have laid nearly 16,000 miles of high-speed track capable of carrying the fastest trains in the world. So far, the construction of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed route alone has created about 110,000 jobs and is playing an enormous role in China's economic recovery.

I know that the U.S. faces major challenges that aren't faced by China's central government. But it shows that one of our main international competitors is making high-speed rail a key component of their economic development and recovery.

Finally, I believe that one great opportunity that will come from this new funding will be the ability to establish a domestic manufacturing base for high-speed rail right here in the United States. Since 1998, the U.S. has lost nearly six million manufacturing jobs. We should seize this opportunity and find ways to incentivize production right here in America. We can work on replacing many of the manufacturing jobs that have disappeared in this country with well paying jobs building new locomotive and passenger rail cars to be used in America and sold to other countries throughout the world.

With sustained funding for high-speed rail and a strong commitment from the federal government and our state partners, I am convinced that the United States can once again build passenger rail rolling stock that is the envy of the world. With that, I want to welcome today’s panelists and thank them for joining us. I look forward to hearing their testimony.

Source: Rep. Corrine Brown