Americans Seem To Agree That This Is The Best Type Of Transportation To Take

Polls conducted by ENGINE INSIGHTS in 2020 found that Americans are in favor of increasing the availability of long-distance train travel, now more than ever. The reasons for Americans' newfound attraction to the rails are many: reducing climate change impacts, avoiding major delays and traffic jams in metro areas, and hassles with parking — especially in the five worst cities for finding parking in all of America. In response, the U.S. government announced new funding for high-speed and long-distance rail projects that exceeds pre-pandemic funding levels by 55 to 65 percent.

The Northeast Corridor, a 457-mile span between Boston and Washington, D.C., accounts for a large percentage of the U.S.'s current rail traffic. The Amtrak Acela, the fastest and most heavily-used route in the Northeast, is getting a high-speed makeover that will take effect in early 2025. NextGen Acela, as the trains are called, will hit speeds of 180 miles per hour and have a passenger capacity 70 percent greater than the current fleet – which already carries five times more passengers per day than all airplanes that travel between New York and D.C.

Can more expansive, spacious city metros in America replicate the efficiency and predictability of train travel in the densely-populated Northeast? There are already 14 states with rail infrastructure that forms a vital part of their economy, according to rail advocacy ground OneRail. Read on to find out about how heavily-populated areas in the country are dealing with the major transportation infrastructure Americans want to see most.

Florida's Brightline, a long-distance train line that travels at speeds up to 125 miles per hour from Miami to Orlando, made headlines when it opened the first segment of its route in 2018 between Miami and West Palm beach; the expansion to Orlando opened in 2023. In the future, Brightline expects to traverse the distance between east and west Florida by opening a station in Tampa. The trains offer touchless turnstiles, complimentary Wi-Fi, and ticket purchase online, through an app, or at automated ticket kiosks in the stations. Parking is also available at the stations. Although the initial South Florida corridor was not profitable for Brightline, the long-distance route between Miami and Orlando increased ridership by 250 percent over the previous year, and accounted for half of all trips on the line. But none of the Florida cities served by Brightline take the crown for being the most walkable city, which could add another wrinkle to passengers' transportation calculus.

Brightline's next project, Brightline West, will connect Las Vegas to the Los Angeles suburbs via a 186-mile-per-hour rail line cutting through the Nevada and California desert to connect the two metropolitan areas in 2 hours, 10 minutes — half the current drive time. The project broke ground in 2024 and plans to begin operations in 2028. The much-anticipated rail hopes to replace some of the 80+ daily flights between the cities and enable more people to use the regional Metrolink trains that link rail commuters at 60 stations across the 17-million-resident metro Los Angeles area.

When you think of Texas, you'll probably conjure an image of remote, abandoned "Cowboy Core" vacation destinations in the American West, best accessed by a beat-up pickup truck or off-road Landrover. This sparse, spacious picture of the state forgets about the thriving population that centers in east Texas — namely, Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. The 240 miles between those major cities are familiar to the more than 100,000 Texans who commute through those miles at least once a week. Those commuters are the population looking most forward to Texas' high-speed rail project, which will link the two cities in less than 90 minutes on a train traveling more than 200 miles per hour. Although the project was initially proposed in 2009 and has stalled since then, Amtrak and the Dallas City Council are now seeking federal funding to reignite the project.

In the Pacific Northwest, an ambitious high-speed rail corridor, Cascadia Rail, wants to link Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia, via Portland, Seattle, and several other cities along the route. The rail would connect Seattle and Portland in under an hour; they are now separated by a three-hour drive. The speed and convenience of high-speed rail would not only benefit commuters and long-distance travelers, it would also allow more people to experience incredible side trips, like the secret Washington city for a food-centric getaway that's located between Seattle and Tacoma, which are both stops along the Cascadia project. Although this project continues to live in the hopes and dreams of its engineers, they remain hopeful that the increasing public demand for rail projects will drive public funding.