High Speed Rail Means Jobs

According to a new report, released today by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a national high-speed rail network – like the one promoted by the Obama Administration – is expected to produce more than 150,000 jobs across the nation by 2035. The study also received coverage today from the New York Times.

In creating the projections, the Conference of Mayors' report – conducted by Economic Development Research Group and supported by Siemens – analyzed four cities of different sizes that are located on high-speed and intercity rail projects supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA): Los Angeles, Chicago, Orlando and Albany (see RAIL Magazine's analysis of those projects). The projections produced by those case studies were extrapolated to create a national total.

The most interesting findings of the report are the ridership projections, job estimates and economic impact figures presented for each of the case study cities. Some of the highlights include job creation numbers of 2,000 new workers in Albany-Rensselaer; 5,000 jobs created in Chicago, and 10,000 jobs in both Los Angeles and Orlando due to the implementation of planned high-speed and intercity rail projects. Meanwhile, the report presents specific ridership estimates for each city that haven't been widely distributed to date from current project documents, including 12 million annual riders in Los Angeles – with more than 7 million passengers traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco alone and another 2-plus million heading both to Sacramento and San Diego – a total of nearly 5 million passengers traveling through Chicago on routes to Detroit, Minneapolis and St. Louis at 110 miles-per-hour speeds (which almost doubles if projects are upgraded to 220 miles-per-hour), more than 5.8 million riders traveling between Orlando and Miami, and a set of routes from Albany to Boston, Buffalo, Montreal and New York attracting more than 1.8 million annual riders at the lowest speed options. Finally, the yearly economic impact for these cities is substantial: more than $360 million annually in Los Angeles, $255 million each year in Orlando, more than $100 million directed to the Albany area, and another $50 million annual impact in the Chicagoland region.

As leaders at all levels of government make the case in the coming years to support additional investment for high-speed and intercity passenger rail, they'll need numbers to strengthen their arguments. The new study by the Conference of Mayors is a strong first statement in that direction. Even more concrete evidence will come as the first phase of ARRA projects come on-line in the coming years, such as the new service between Milwaukee and Madison, Wisc., the 3-C Corridor in Ohio, the extension of Amtrak's Downeaster to Brunswick, Maine, and especially the initiation of true high-speed service between Orlando and Tampa by 2014.