Northeast states seek plan for rail upgrades

From the AP - A coalition of 11 states asked federal railroad officials on Thursday to develop a plan to dramatically upgrade high-speed passenger rail service along the Northeast Corridor during the next four decades. The 11 states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont — are proposing a three-year, $18.8 million study of possible enhancements to both intercity rail service, such as Amtrak's Acela Express, and local commuter rail systems that use portions of the Northeast Corridor track. The states noted that while the corridor encompasses an area that makes up only 2 percent of the U.S. land mass, it's home to about 20 percent of the nation's population and generates 20 percent of its Gross Domestic Product. Among other goals pone is to improve Acela travel times by 20-30 minutes between Washington and New York City. NARP said the study would be an important step toward improving capacity on the Northeast Corridor.

I am for such an analysis to maximize traffic and minimize travel time on the NEC tracks but isn't such an analysis being done already with the Federal stimulus money? I am also for not wasting money so I don't know if this would be a redundant analysis.