总统乔·拜登致力于激发“第二次铁路大革命”在这个以汽车为中心的国家，铁路基础设施已经衰落了几十年。
在担任参议员期间，总统每天都从特拉华州的威尔明顿通勤到华盛顿特区，行程数百万英里，并赢得了“美国铁路公司乔”的绰号。
“他是几十年来第一位经常乘坐火车的总统，他知道火车有多实用，”罗伯特·亚罗(Robert Yaro)告诉美国广播公司新闻，他是纽约地区规划协会(一个非营利的公民规划组织)的前主席，也是宾夕法尼亚大学的荣誉退休教授。
现在“美国铁路公司乔”是在国家的最高办公室，已经优先处理铁路倡导者认为，振兴该国摇摇欲坠的基础设施是改造美国运输系统的一个新机会，他们说，美国的运输系统停滞在过去。
“真的很尴尬，想想就知道。我们应该是世界上最富有的国家和超级大国，我们有一个20世纪30年代崩溃的铁路系统，”美国高速铁路协会(一个非营利倡导组织)主席兼首席执行官安迪·昆兹(Andy Kunz)说。
“作为副总统，拜登是铁路的大力支持者，”昆兹补充说。“所以现在他又回来掌舵了，我们有了一个新的机会，可以真正把这件事做大。”
专家们说，拜登的总统任期和基础设施建设可能会引发一场铁路革命，以解决气候危机，创造就业机会，并保持美国在中国等新兴经济巨头面前的竞争力。
“一代投资一次”
拜登的2万亿美元基础设施提案被称为美国就业计划(American Jobs Plan)，该提案已拨款约800亿美元，用于恢复美国破旧的铁路系统。总统已提议提高企业税，为这个庞大的项目提供资金。
总统的权力最终被限制在创造新的立法来解锁数万亿美元，但拜登说他欢迎辩论和国会的调整。
资金去向的具体细节仍在研究中，但是资料页由白宫发布的关于基础设施建设的提案中，提到“铁路”的次数多达12次。
“拜登总统呼吁国会投资800亿美元解决美国铁路公司的维修积压问题;实现交通繁忙的东北走廊的现代化;改善现有走廊，连接新的城市对;并加强支持客运和货运铁路安全、效率和电气化的赠款和贷款项目。
圣何塞州立大学米内塔交通研究所(Mineta Transportation Institute)的教育主任阿莎·温斯坦·阿格拉瓦尔(Asha Weinstein Agrawal)称拜登的基础设施计划是“一项雄心勃勃、令人兴奋的尝试，旨在让联邦政府在新的方向上支持交通运输。”
“如果你回想一下20世纪60年代，当时联邦政府决定建立一个州际系统，用标准化的高质量道路连接整个国家——这也是一项非常雄心勃勃的事业。她告诉美国广播公司新闻，“现在提出的这种铁路几乎是一个雄心勃勃的计划。
非营利组织Eno交通中心的总裁兼首席执行官罗伯特·普恩特(Robert Puentes)告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，几十年来，联邦政府的交通政策“一直处于停滞状态，没有真正发生太大变化”。
普恩特说，自20世纪90年代末以来，人们开始关注汽车和飞机旅行的环境影响，以及公共交通在将低收入人群与高租金大城市的工作和机会联系起来方面发挥的作用。
普恩特说:“现在，我们有了拜登基础设施计划，它真正包含了所有这些内容，很难夸大他们提出的计划与过去35年左右联邦交通政策的不同之处。”
美国铁路公司首席执行官比尔·弗林在基础设施计划公布后不久的一份声明中称赞了该计划，称其为“这个国家一直在等待的东西”。弗林继续指出，东北走廊的大多数隧道和桥梁“已经超过一个世纪了”，必须立即更换。
这家准上市公司表示，仅修复东北走廊(Amtrak最繁忙的路线，从华盛顿特区到波士顿)的现有基础设施就需要约380亿美元。
虽然拜登目前的基础设施提案明确指出，资金需要用于美国铁路公司的维修积压，但运输政策专家指出，这将为其他铁路项目留下约420亿美元，包括在美国投资高速铁路的可能性。
虽然白宫公布的计划中没有提到“高铁”，但拜登的交通部长皮特·布蒂吉格在最近的一次讲话中说MSNBC采访他希望美国“在高速铁路接入方面领先世界”
接受美国广播公司采访的交通专家表示，目前，与发达国家相比，美国在高铁接入方面接近垫底。
迎接“我们时代的巨大挑战”
雅罗是北大西洋铁路的指导委员会成员，这是一条拟建的高速铁路，旨在连接新英格兰的大部分地区，并实现纽约市和波士顿之间100分钟的铁路服务。根据美国铁路公司的时间表，目前，铁路旅行可能需要3个半到5个小时。
2010年，亚罗说他和一个团队被邀请向当时的副总统拜登介绍他们当前计划的前身，拜登已经建立了他作为铁路爱好者的声誉。最初的标记计划在90分钟内将纽约市与华盛顿特区连接起来。
“我们在白宫西翼的罗斯福厅，我们把它展示给副总统和一群名人、联邦铁路管理人员和其他人，”亚罗回忆道。“副总统在演讲后10分钟左右敲打着桌子说，‘我已经等了30年了，让我们开始吧。’"
雅罗说，经过漫长的官僚程序和新政府，最初的提议最终“在特朗普的白宫遭遇了沉闷的撞击”。
现在，他希望拜登政府能够至少恢复其中的一部分。“这是提案的北半部分，从纽约到波士顿的部分，”他说。
在高铁方面，美国远远落后于其他发达国家。50多年前的1964年，日本首次推出了新干线动车，到了20世纪80年代，高铁已经遍布欧洲。最近，中国刚刚在过去15年里建造了世界上最长的高速铁路网。
日本的新干线和法国的高速列车以时速接近200英里而自豪。中国表示，其高速列车最高时速可达220英里。
与美国运营情况最接近的相比，美国铁路公司(Amtrak)从波士顿开往华盛顿特区的Acela快车(Acela Express)的时速可达150英里/小时，尽管根据其自身的时间表，其平均速度仅为该速度的一小部分。
由于大城市的大多数机场通常远离市中心，Kunz指出，仅仅为了进入城市，飞行后通常需要一个小时或更多的额外旅行时间。与此同时，铁路服务“实际上把你带到了城市，”昆兹说。
雅罗说，成本和政治阻碍了美国高铁的生产。仅北大西洋铁路提案就有大约1050亿美元的价格标签，他希望总统的计划将有助于“作为首付”。
虽然有些人可能会呆呆地看着成本，但雅罗说，他会辩称，这是“如果我们要成功地与中国竞争，我们必须做的事情。”
就在这个月，中国报道创纪录的经济增长2021年第一季度为18%，而美国仍在受大流行引发的经济衰退的影响。
雅罗说:“这意味着他们的经济可能已经比我们大，或者在未来一年左右会比我们大。”他指出，如果这种情况发生，这将标志着美国150年来第一次没有世界上最大的经济。
白宫对拜登基础设施提议的总结将此作为一个目标，称:“像过去的伟大项目一样，总统的计划将团结和动员国家迎接我们时代的巨大挑战:气候危机和专制中国的野心。”
大规模气候解决方案
Kunz说，由于有可能成为全电动的，高速铁路可以提供“一个巨大的气候解决方案”，并使成千上万辆碳排放车辆停止行驶。
昆兹补充说，并不是说美国没有在交通运输上花钱，而是汽车、汽油和航空业的游说对资金的去向产生了很大影响。
温斯坦·阿格沃尔补充说，美国的大型基础设施项目也面临着一连串的后勤障碍和繁文缛节，这在加州饱受问题困扰的高速铁路项目中得到了进一步暴露。
“我们只是在美国非常缓慢地建设基础设施，其中一些是很好的理由，而另一些可能不是，”她说。“无论好坏，就政府干预这类事情的方式而言，我们不是中国。”
“坦白地说，联邦政府通过征用权征用大片土地是非常困难的——这是可以做到的，但这是一个非常缓慢的过程，”她补充说。
环境和社区影响审查过程也需要时间和咨询，尤其是在已经开发和人口稠密的地区。
雅罗补充说，公众和立法者“对我们做大事的能力没有太多信心”。
“如果肯尼迪在这种政治环境下提出登月计划，人们会说，‘哦，我的上帝，那真的很难，我们怎么去那里?’”雅罗说。
“当然，登月发射引发了一场技术革命，这场革命推动了美国经济半个世纪，”他补充道。“我们可以再做一次。”
How 'Amtrak Joe' Biden's infrastructure push could put rail back on track in the US
PresidentJoe Bidencampaigned on sparking the"second great railroad revolution"in a car-centric nation where rail infrastructure has languished for decades.
The president famously commuted daily from Wilmington, Delaware, to Washington, D.C., during his time as a senator, logging millions of miles riding the rails and earning the nickname "Amtrak Joe."
"He's the first president in decades who's routinely ridden trains and he understands just how functional they are," Robert Yaro, the former president of New York's Regional Plan Association, a nonprofit civic planning organization, and a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, told ABC News.
Now that "Amtrak Joe" is in the nation's highest office and hasprioritizedrevitalizing the country's crumbling infrastructure, rail advocates see a new opportunity to transform a transportation system in the U.S. that they say is stuck in the past.
"It's embarrassing, really, when you think about it. We're supposed to be the richest country in the world and a superpower, and we've got a 1930s falling-apart rail system," Andy Kunz, president and CEO of the U.S. High Speed Rail Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, said.
"Biden was, as vice president, a big rail supporter," Kunz added. "And so now that he's back in the helm, we have a new opportunity to really push this big."
Here's how experts say a Biden presidency and infrastructure push could spark a rail revolution to address the climate crisis, create jobs and keep the U.S. competitive against rising economic behemoths such as China.
'Once in a generation investment'
Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, dubbed the American Jobs Plan, has earmarked some $80 billion to revive the dilapidated rail system in the U.S. The president has proposed corporate tax hikes to fund the massive project.
The president's power is ultimately limited in creating new legislation that unlocks trillions of dollars, but Biden said hewelcomes debateand tweaks from Congress.
Exact details of where the money will go are still being worked out, but afact sheetreleased by the White House on the infrastructure proposal mentions "rail" a dozen times.
"President Biden is calling on Congress to invest $80 billion to address Amtrak's repair backlog; modernize the high-traffic Northeast Corridor; improve existing corridors and connect new city pairs; and enhance grant and loan programs that support passenger and freight rail safety, efficiency, and electrification," the White House overview of the plan states.
Asha Weinstein Agrawal, the director of education at San Jose State University's Mineta Transportation Institute, called Biden's infrastructure plan a "really ambitious and exciting attempt to take the federal government support of transportation in new directions."
"If you think back to the 1960s, when the federal government decided to build an interstate system that connects the entire country with standardized, high-quality roads -- that was also an enormously ambitious undertaking. The kind of rail that is being proposed now could be almost as ambitious a plan," she told ABC News.
Robert Puentes, the president and CEO of the nonprofit Eno Center for Transportation, told ABC News that for decades the federal government's approach to transportation policy "has been in kind of a stasis situation, where nothing has really evolved that much."
Since the late 1990s, Puentes said there has been a new focus on the environmental impact of car and plane travel as well as the role mass transit plays in connecting often lower-income individuals to jobs and opportunities in big cities with high rents.
"Now, we have the Biden infrastructure plan, which really embraces all of that, and it's hard to overstate just how different what they proposed is from the way federal transportation policy has been for the last 35 years or so," Puentes said.
Bill Flynn, the CEO of Amtrak, lauded the infrastructure plan in a statement shortly after it was unveiled, calling it "what this nation has been waiting for." Flynn went on to note that most of the Northeast Corridor's tunnels and bridges "are over a century old" and must be replaced imminently.
The quasi-public corporation has said that it needs some $38 billion just to repair the existing infrastructure in the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak's busiest route that traverses major cities from Washington, D.C., to Boston.
While Biden's current infrastructure proposal specifically states that funds need to go toward Amtrak's repair backlog, transportation policy experts note that this leaves some $42 billion for other rail projects -- including the possibility of investing in high-speed rail in the U.S.
While "high-speed rail" wasn't mentioned by name in the plans released by the White House, Biden's transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said in a recentMSNBC interviewthat he wants the U.S. "to be leading the world when it comes to access to high-speed rail."
Currently, the U.S. is near the bottom compared to the developed world when it comes to access to high-speed rail, transportation experts interviewed by ABC News said.
Meeting 'the great challenges of our time'
Yaro is on the steering committee of the North Atlantic Rail, a proposed high-speed rail route that aims to connect much of New England as well as enable 100-minute rail service between New York City and Boston. Currently, that rail trip can take between three-and-a-half to five hours, according to Amtrak timetables.
In 2010, Yaro said he and a team were invited to present a precursor of their current plans to then-Vice President Biden, who had already established his reputation as a rail enthusiast. The original markup had plans to connect New York City to Washington, D.C., in 90 minutes.
"We were in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing and we presented it to the vice president and a bunch of luminaries, the federal railroad administrator and others," Yaro recalled. "And the vice president, about 10 minutes after the presentation, pounded on the table said, 'I have been waiting for this for 30 years, let's do it.'"
Yaro said after a lengthy bureaucratic process and a new administration, the original proposal eventually "landed with a dull thud in the Trump White House."
Now, he hopes a Biden administration can revive at least parts of it. "This is the northern half of that proposal, the piece from New York City to Boston," he said.
The U.S. has fallen far behind the rest of the developed world when it comes to high-speed rail. Japan first unveiled its Shinkansen bullet train more than 50 years ago in 1964, and by the 1980s, high-speed rail had spread throughout Europe. More recently, China has constructed the world's longest network of high-speed rail in just the past 15 years.
Japan's Shinkansen and France's Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) boast speeds of nearly 200 mph. China has said its high-speed trains can run at up to 220 mph.
The closest operational U.S. comparison -- Amtrak's Acela Express train, which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C. -- can reach speeds of up to 150 mph, though its average speed is a fraction of that based on its own timetables.
As most airports in major cities are often far from their downtown areas, Kunz noted that it can typically take an hour or more of additional travel time after flying just to get into the city. Meanwhile, rail service "actually takes you right into the cities," Kunz said.
Cost and politics have impeded the production of high-speed rail in the U.S., Yaro said. The North Atlantic Rail proposal alone has a price tag of some $105 billion, and he hopes the president's plan will help "as a down payment."
While some may gawk at the cost, Yaro said he would argue that it's something "we have to do if we're going to compete successfully with China."
Just this month, China reportedrecord-high economic growthof 18% in the first quarter of 2021, while the U.S. was still reeling from the pandemic-induced economic downturn.
"This means that their economy is probably already larger than ours or will be larger than ours in the next year or so," Yaro said, noting that if this occurs, it would mark the first time in some 150 years that the U.S. hasn't had the largest economy in the world.
The White House's summary of Biden's infrastructure proposal lays this out as an objective, stating: "Like great projects of the past, the President's plan will unify and mobilize the country to meet the great challenges of our time: the climate crisis and the ambitions of an autocratic China."
'Massive climate solution'
With the potential to be all-electric, high-speed rail could provide "a massive climate solution," according to Kunz, as well as take thousands of carbon-emitting vehicles off the road.
Kunz added that it's not that the U.S. isn't spending money on transportation, but that auto, gasoline and air industry lobbying has had a big impact on where the funds will go.
Weinstein Agrawal added that massive infrastructure projects in the U.S. also face a litany of logistical hurdles and red tape -- something that was exposed further in California's problem-plagued high-speed rail project.
"We just build infrastructure very slowly in the United States, and some of it is a very good reason and some of it, probably not," she said. "We're not China, for better or worse, in terms of the way the government intervenes in these kinds of matters."
"It's very hard, frankly, for the federal government to just take huge swaths of land through eminent domain -- it can be done, but it's a very slow process," she added.
Environmental and community impact review processes also take time and consultation, especially when building in already-developed and populous regions.
Yaro added that there is "just not a lot of confidence in our ability to do big things" among both the public and lawmakers.
"If Kennedy proposed a moon shot in this political environment, people are going to say, 'Oh my God, that's going to be really hard, how are we going to get there?'" Yaro said.
"And of course the moon shot unleashed a technological revolution which has powered the U.S. economy for half a century," he added. "We could do this again."
