WASHINGTON—As Congress considers making the greatest single investment in passenger rail in U.S. history, a coalition of high-speed rail boosters is

High-Speed Rail Gets Boost From New Coalition

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2021-07-15 15:30:05

WASHINGTON—As Congress considers making the greatest single investment in passenger rail in U.S. history, a coalition of high-speed rail boosters is readying a response: Go faster, and spend more.

Led by a bipartisan group of three former transportation secretaries, the U.S. High Speed Rail Coalition is trying to mobilize support for a $205 billion infusion of funding for new high-speed rail projects around the country.

The group, with backing from labor unions, construction and passenger rail companies and progressive activists, is launching a campaign Thursday aimed at getting Congress to include the funding in the roughly $3.5 trillion budget-reconciliation bill that Democrats hope to bring to a vote this fall.

“We can either fill the last generation’s potholes, or we can build the next generation’s high speed rail,” said Rep. Seth Moulton (D., Mass.).

Mr. Moulton is a member of the coalition, which wants Congress to create a major new high-speed rail fund, over and above the tens of billions that the Biden administration has proposed for Amtrak and the states to upgrade regular passenger-rail service.