US high-speed rail maps show 4 proposed phases

Maps from the US High Speed ​​Rail Association (USHSR) show how a new 17,000-mile (27,000-kilometer) high-speed rail network could be built across the United States in four separate phases.

The proposal involves building a network of rail lines from San Diego, California, to Vancouver, British Columbia, and from San Antonio, Texas, to Montreal, Quebec.

After decades of little activity, there has been an explosion in proposals for new high-speed rail lines in the U.S. in recent years, with two already under construction in California. The Brightline West high-speed line is being built to connect Las Vegas, Nevada, with Southern California, while the California High-Speed ​​Rail will run between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The plan from the USHSR, a lobbying group formed in 2009 and comprised of multiple manufacturing companies and trade associations, would dramatically expand this route and create 220 mph (354 km/h) high-speed rail lines across the U.S. At this point, the plan is still very preliminary and has not yet received official approval.

In the first phase, USHSR plans to build a series of high-speed lines on the West Coast connecting Seattle, Washington, to Eugene, Oregon, as well as San Francisco and Sacramento to San Diego and Las Vegas.

At the same time, a network would be established in the Midwest with Chicago as its center. This network would extend to several cities, including Minneapolis, Minnesota, St. Louis, Missouri, and Detroit, Michigan.

Additional southern lines would be built, connecting Miami, Orlando, and Tampa in Florida, and San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston in Texas. Several lines would also be built from New York City to Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina, to Birmingham, Alabama.

The second phase would connect most of the eastern network already in place, with lines running between Orlando and Athens, Georgia, and from Houston to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, via New Orleans, Birmingham and Louisville, Kentucky. The northeastern coastline would be extended from New York City to Boston, Massachusetts, while a new line would be built between Rochester, New York, and Toronto, Canada.

To the west, the existing Southern California line would be extended to Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. A new spur would connect Denver, Colorado, to Albuquerque, New Mexico. A high-speed line would also be built between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The third phase would involve more substantial construction, linking the existing eastern and western rail networks. One major line would run from Phoenix to Jackson, Mississippi, via Dallas and Albuquerque.

New rail lines would also be built connecting Salt Lake City, Utah, to Denver, and Tulsa to Kansas City. Another line would connect Memphis to Atlanta, Georgia.

In the Northeast, the existing network would be extended to Portland, Maine, Montreal and Detroit.

The fourth and final phase would connect the various lines that had already been built to create a unified national high-speed network. This would include building lines from Seattle and Sacramento to Salt Lake City, Denver to Minneapolis via Kansas City, and Dallas to St. Louis and Louisville.

New rail lines would also connect Mobile, Alabama, to Jacksonville, Florida, Montreal to Boston, and Columbus, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Andy Kunz, CEO of the USHSR, said Newsweek If the political will is there, the network could be established within a few decades.

“The Obama-Biden administration has set a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. That nationwide access remains our goal,” Kunz said.