A plan for a new high-speed train line between New York City and Boston is being pushed by a group of influential transit planners and labor leaders who say President Joe Biden’s infrastructure act creates an opportunity to build a new, fast connection between the two cities.
The proposal includes digging a 16-mile tunnel beneath the Long Island Sound between Port Jefferson and Milford, Connecticut. The concept — which is the brainchild of a group called the Northeast High Speed Rail Coalition — would reduce the Amtrak trip between Manhattan and Boston from four hours to just 100 minutes.
The route would run along a mix of new and existing tracks from Penn Station to Ronkonkoma, then along a new connection to the tunnel beneath the Sound. In Connecticut, the line would use existing Amtrak rails from Milford up to Hartford. From there, it would require the construction of new tracks between Hartford and Providence — as well as upgrades to the existing train line between Providence and Boston.
Planners have for decades pitched similar plans to speed up train service in the Northeast, but they’ve fallen flat, in some cases due to local opposition. The proposed route would bypass some cities in Connecticut, like Bridgeport and Stamford. Bob Yaro, a coalition member who previously ran the prominent advocacy group Regional Plan Association, said previous pitches for high-speed trains between New York and New England were shot down by Connecticut officials who saw them as a slight.
But the new proposal may carry more weight as it has the backing of labor unions who see the concept as a job creator for the entire Northeast. An internal planning document circled among members of the coalition that was obtained by Gothamist frames the proposal as a way to bring the region’s rail network up to speed with those in Europe and Asia.
The light blue route on this map shows the high speed rail rout between New York and Boston.
North Atlantic Rail
“Virtually every industrialized nation —and a growing number of developing countries— has completed or is planning HSR (high-speed rail) links between all of their major cities, with speeds exceeding 186 mph,” the document notes, while Amtrak’s service between New York and Boston travels at an “average 65 miles per hour.”
The Northeast High Speed Rail Coalition, which includes construction advocates, labor unions and chambers of commerce, hasn’t yet gone public with its final proposal for the route. The group’s members told Gothamist the project could cost upwards of $50 billion to complete.
The planning document argues the train line could be subsidized through federal funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, and notes Biden has already provided funding for high-speed rail projects in other parts of the country like California and Las Vegas.
The coalition’s members said they will formally announce their plans during a kickoff event in September — and are working to gain the support of elected officials, business leaders and civic groups in the meantime.
The group hopes to tap into $6 million in federal funds to plan the project, and aims to begin construction by 2028.
Michael Efaw, the national legislative director for the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, which represents railroad workers, said the plan would be a boon for his union’s members. The rail industry experienced a hiring boom after Congress passed a law in 2008 requiring all the country’s train tracks to be equipped with technology called “positive train control” that helps prevent crashes and derailments. That work has wrapped up — and Efaw said many of his members have been laid off.
“High-speed rail is coming to America, there is no way in hell New York City’s not going to get a taste of it,” Efaw, whose union is part of the coalition. “And that’s what this is all about is growing the local economy, hiring those local people [who] already [have] some knowledge of how the railroad works is going to be tremendous in the operations.”
In 2021, 23 members of Congress called on Biden to create a new federal corporation that would oversee the construction of a high-speed rail network in the Northeast, which would be operated by Amtrak. Those plans went nowhere.
Yaro said the latest proposal has a better chance of approval because of labor leaders’ support.
“There’s been a renewed interest on the part of organized labor, the rail operating unions and construction unions, who are saying, ‘Hey, if there’s high-speed rail projects getting off the ground everywhere in the country except the Northeast, what are we chopped liver? Why are we being left out?’” Yaro said.
Amtrak’s Acela trains that travel between Washington, D.C. and Boston frequently sell out, and the service is one of the railroad’s only profitable routes. Yaro said adding another, faster connection between Boston and New York would be good for both cities.
“There are big synergies between the major industries in Boston, New York and the intermediate cities and financial services, biotech and pharma. Academic research institutions and teaching hospitals,” he said. “We think that the demand would be more than adequate for that service.”
But Tom Wright, the current president and CEO of the Regional Plan Association, argued Amtrak should use money available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to bolster its existing service in the Northeast. He said the project could cost $100 billion, twice as much as the coalition’s estimate.
“I want to invest the dollars in a way that will benefit both the regional markets and the larger regions,” Wright said.
While supporters of the project are pushing an aggressive timeline with construction starting in just four years, environmental advocates note it would require an extensive environmental review to ensure the Long Island Sound is protected.
The Sound has in recent years seen a revitalization of wildlife like menhaden fish and oysters, as well as frequent visits from whales, dolphins and seals. Roger Reynolds, a legal director for the advocacy group Save the Sound, worried a new tunnel beneath the waterway could threaten the ecosystem.
“We’re not going to prejudge anything, we’re guided by the science, which has gotten us this far in restoring the Sound, so we would have to continue to be guided by it,” said Reynolds. “And we’re very in favor of a high-speed rail as a significant way to reduce greenhouse gases and address climate change.”
“It’s a matter of not just drawing a few lines on maps, but really coming with the data and having a full transparent process on exactly how this would affect all those resources,” he added, noting the study would take longer than four years to complete.