Little Rock-Memphis High Speed Rail Study To Be Started Next Year

“I’m pleased to know that the Federal Railroad Administration is committed to undertaking this feasibility study next year. As added insurance, I pushed to include additional funding in next year’s transportation budget to ensure that there will be no further delay,” Congressman Cohen said. “Memphis is the transportation hub of the nation. We’re home to the largest cargo airline, highways, rail yards, the Mississippi River, but we don’t have high speed rail. Investing in high-speed rail means jobs, not just good-paying construction jobs, but the jobs that will be created from companies that chose to do business in Memphis because of the affordable and efficient transportation that high-speed rail can offer to their employees”

At today’s hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, Joseph C. Szabo, FRA Administrator, assured the Congressman that the $500,000 needed to initiate the feasibility study was requested as part of the Obama Administration’s Fiscal Year 2010 Transportation budget currently working its way through Congress.

To make absolutely sure that FRA would be able to do this study, earlier this year Congressman Cohen succeeded in getting a $3 million increase for the Railroad Research and Development account in the House-passed version of the Fiscal Year 2010 Transportation Appropriations bill. The increase in federal funding would be used to complete five railroad feasibility studies – including the South Central High Speed Rail Corridor from Memphis to Little Rock -- which were authorized under a 2008 law. The Senate did not include this increase in similar legislation. A joint Senate-House committee is now hammering out the differences between the two bills.

Congressman Cohen has sent a letter to the Chairmen and Subcommittee Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging that the increase in funding be included in the final fiscal year 2010 Transportation Budget that is sent to President Obama for his signature.