Secretary Anthony Foxx
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Virginians for High-Speed Rail
21st Annual Luncheon
Richmond, VA – July 22, 2015
Thank you, Chip, for the introduction. It is good to be with you in Richmond, a city that in many ways holds the key to the connecting rail services between the north and southeast regions. I also want to thank the Virginians for High-Speed Rail for convening this and for all the work you do. All of you are basically proselytizers of the benefits of rail in this state and in the Southeast.
There also are a couple of people I want to mention. One is Secretary Layne – let’s give him a big hand. I also want to give a shout-out to Corey Hill. Corey is our Acting Executive Director at the FRA and has been a leader in FRA’s efforts to carry out the President’s vision for passenger rail in this country. And I did want to mention the work that FRA has been doing because, frankly, it shows you that you have an Administration that is very bullish about the future of rail in this country. Folks, this is the largest federal grant program for passenger rail in our nation’s history – and 691 million of those grant dollars have gone into the Southeast Corridor.
This is not just in development projects like track improvements. Because of these investments, we now have the ball rolling on plans to get speeds up to 90 MPH between Arlington and Richmond. We’d also double the amount of daily service. Because of these investments, we’re now looking at an alternative route between Richmond and Raleigh that will cut what is a 3.5-hour trip down to 2 hours and 15 minutes. It’ll cut 75 minutes off the trip. (It’ll make it more realistic for people traveling for vacation or business to keep their cars at home. And the way this region is growing – I’ll say a few more words about this in a bit – we’re going to need that extra travel capacity to be providing people with choices.)
I also want to mention that this Administration has requested additional passenger rail funding in every single one of our budget requests. We also have a six-year reauthorization proposal on the table – it’s called the GROW AMERICA Act – that would invest $29 billion in rail. It would bring passenger rail into the trust fund so year by year we can advance the designs and lay the track and make the improvements we need to build a world-class passenger rail system in this country.
We’re going to keep pushing. And you all need to keep pushing too – especially right now when you have this moment when business and government is primed to figure out how to get us moving.
So I did have some news I want to share with you today, which is that our Department is going to increase its investment in advancing your vision. Our Department will undertake a one-million-dollar planning effort to create a shared vision to move the Southeast network forward. As part of this, we’ll create a governance organization to oversee this whole process. We are excited about this – but let me sort of clarify why.
I am not announcing these planning dollars to have a 10-year conversation. I have about a year and a half left in this position. And frankly, one of my priorities is to make as much progress advancing the Southeast network as I can. And I’ll tell you why – it’s because, when you look at what’s coming, having a world-class network in the Southeast isn’t a luxury.
We found in our report, Beyond Traffic, that we have 70 million more people coming in the next 30 years, and that the majority of this growth is actually going to occur within the major metropolitan areas this network will serve. Looking out a little further, to 2050, one measure has found the Southeast Region will have 78 percent growth. That’s a jump from having 17 million people to 31 million. If we’re not careful, growth in this region could choke it. Which is why before it is too late we need a passenger rail system that can be a release valve for some of that traffic.
I remember the President saying when he rolled out the vision for passenger rail, “There’s no reason why we can’t do this. This is America.” We still believe that. The country that built the transcontinental railroad shouldn’t be falling behind other countries when it comes to building high-quality rail connections between our cities.
So let’s get this plan moving. I don’t want you to feel like there will be several more Transportation Secretaries speaking to you before real progress has been made. Let’s do something substantial to create a very visible symbol that the Northeast Corridor is coming south – coming to Richmond, to Raleigh, to Charlotte, to Atlanta. That’s where I hope you all will focus your time and energy.
So with that I’d like to stop here and make this more of a conversation. I look forward to your questions and comments. And I again want to thank Virginians for High-Speed Rail for convening this meeting. And I hope that next year you will already see ways that this planning money is helping you get things done.
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