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Amtrak has 75 per cent of the end point air/rail commercial passengers between New York City and Washington.  According to his testimony, Boardman want's to spend $50 billion on the NYC - Washington portion of the NEC to reduce the running time of the Acela between the end points from 2 hours 45 minutes to 2 hours 15 minutes. The $50 billion is before debt service charges, which could double the cost of the upgrades.   Also according to the testimony Boardman recommends spending $100 to $150 billion before debt service to build, as I understand it, a new, high speed railroad for the NEC.  According to his testimony, Amtrak now carries more passengers between Boston and NYC than all the airlines combined. Boardman offered no details on how these improvements are to be funded, other than to use public monies.  He alluded to private/public funding partnerships. If the California High Speed Rail Project is any indicator, he is not likely to get many takers from the private sector, other than equipment, materials, and construction entities with the potential to sell their stuff to the project. If you already have the lion's share of air/rail travelers between NYC and Washington or NYC and Boston, why should the nation spend more than $400 billion (estimate with inclusion of debt service) to upgrade the existing route or build a new one?  Where are the market demand studies that show the need to do so?  Or is this about bragging rights?   Why should the nation's taxpayers agree to a massive investment in the NEC, as opposed to using scarce resources to develop or upgrade other corridors, i.e. Dallas to San Antonio, Chicago to Minneapolis, etc?. Given that Amtrak has a strong footprint in the NEC, providing one overlooks buses and personal vehicles, this does not make a lot of sense.  Whoops, who ever said that politics makes sense?
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