House passes Amtrak expansion bill

The House of Representatives easily approved the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act by a vote of 227 to 187 today. The legislation authorizes $14 billion in appropriations to modernize and expand passenger rail throughout the country.

According to the bill’s sponsor, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the bill also includes $850 million in grant money to fund high-speed rail initiatives. With gas prices easily exceeding $4.00 per gallon nationwide, transit and high-speed rail is an increasingly popular issue. 

"Those prices are reverberating across the nation, changing travel habits, changing travel patterns, causing consumers to look to mass transit. Transit has exploded in its growth; last year we added more than a million new passengers to transit service a day. Amtrak has similarly experienced enormous growth,” said Oberstar.

While some are wondering about the death of the road trip, others are envisioning regional networks of high-speed rail lines. The Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission has a plan that includes a high-speed route from the Twin Cities to Milwaukee and Chicago at a top speed of 110 miles per hour. The group is hoping the new funding will put that plan into action. Another plan that would be eligible to receive the grant money included in this bill is a high-speed rail line between Duluth and the Twin Cities. That route has long been a pet project for Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The legislation still faces an uncertain future in the Senate and White House, but high-speed rail could be a big issue for years to come. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D.-Ill., has shown strong support for rail transit. The candidate recently stated, "it is a lot more reliable and it is a good way for us to start reducing how much gas we are using."