Amid all the hot air and bluster that are much of the debate on the future of rail today, here comes something interesting – a more detailed plan of action for the Northeast Corridor (NEC).
Not only a plan, but something of an insight into how thinking at the highest planning levels might turn into action not only in the Northeast but in other urbanized parts of the country. The Feds are looking at more than a dozen plans to upgrade the NEC, from simple moves to bullet trains, from improving some services to dumping others or creating new ones.
It’s not exactly a canary in a coalmine scenario, but any early warning of how the federal transportation bureaucracy plans to approach changing something as major as the Northeast transportation corridor has to be useful to planners and engineers trying to figure out what they may have to deal with in the future.
And there’s always the chance for input to help shape the final blueprint.
