Thursday, December 10, 1998 (Washington, DC) U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater today announced the expansion of the high-speed rail corridor program originated under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991.

The program will expand the number of federally designated high-speed rail corridors from five to eleven. Designated corridors are eligible for funding to eliminate hazards at highway-rail crossings.

"Safety is President Clinton’s highest transportation priority, and by eliminating hazards, this program improves safety," Secretary Slater said. "High-speed rail is an important part of our vision for a safe, flexible, seamless intermodal transportation system—providing for economic growth and greater mobility for both rural and urban Americans—in the 21st century."

Section 1103 of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which President Clinton signed on June 9, 1998, continues the highway-rail grade crossing hazard elimination program. The program will be managed jointly by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). A notice that funds are available will be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register.*

"States already have invested millions of dollars in high-speed rail initiatives. This program leverages that investment and provides the leadership for a new generation of high-speed rail services," FRA Aministrator Jolene M. Molitoris said.

Key elements of the expanded hazard elimination program include:

An increase in the number of designated high-speed corridors from 5 (prior to the passage of TEA-21) to eight, with the addition of the Gulf Coast, Keystone, and Empire State corridors.
Up to three additional high-speed rail corridors may be selected by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, for a total of 11.
Contract authority of $31.5 million through fiscal 2003 to be used for all the designated high-speed rail corridors.

The FRA is soliciting applications from states, individually or in conjunction with other states, for designation of high-speed corridors and for funding highway-rail crossing improvements on those corridors. Each corridor must have rail lines where train speeds of 90 mph or more are possible or can be reasonably achieved in the future. The FRA and the FHWA will jointly review and evaluate applications for corridor designations and funding.

To date, eight corridors have been designated:

California Corridor (San Francisco Bay Area—Los Angeles—San Diego);
Pacific Northwest Corridor (Eugene, Ore—Portland, Ore—Seattle—Vancouver, B.C.);
Chicago Hub Corridor, extending from Chicago to St. Louis; to Detroit; to
Minneapolis/St. Paul via Milwaukee;
Florida Corridor (Miami—Orlando—Tampa);
Southeast Corridor (linking the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C.,
Richmond, Va. (with an extension to Hampton Roads, Va.), Raleigh, N.C.,
Columbia, S.C., Savannah, Ga., Jacksonville, Fla., and another route linking Charlotte, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., Spartanburg, S.C., Atlanta and Macon, Ga.;
Gulf Coast Corridor; New Orleans hub extending westward to Baton Rouge, La., and Houston; and eastward to Biloxi, Miss., and Mobile, Ala.;
Keystone Corridor, (Philadelphia—Harrisburg, Pa.); and
The Empire Corridor, (New York City—Albany, N.Y.—Buffalo, N.Y.)

Of the eight corridors listed, the first five were designated and funded under the predecessor grade crossing hazard elimination program in Section 1010 of ISTEA. Currently, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are investing in, or seriously studying, upgrades to existing rail corridors in order to provide high-speed rail passenger service.