49 U.S.C. § 26101 — High-speed rail corridor planning
submitted 32 years ago by Pub. L. 103-440 to r/title-49-TRANSPORTATION · 618 words · no verdicts yet
This section permits Federal assistance for planning high-speed rail corridors and lists eligible planning activities. It also lists factors for selecting recipients.
(a) The Secretary* may fund a public agency or group of agencies for up to 50% of publicly financed eligible costs. At least 20% must come from State* and local sources, excluding Federal-program funds. (b) An activity qualifies if the Secretary finds it needed for engineering, operating, financial, environmental, or socioeconomic projections for high-speed service and leading to a sound financial and institutional implementation plan, or if it is acquisition under (M). Eligible activities are environmental assessments; feasibility studies; economic, ridership, revenue, and expense analysis; rail-employment and community-impact analysis; State, metropolitan, and interstate coordination; operations planning; route selection and rights-of-way purchase; preliminary engineering and design; identifying corridor improvements including electrification, line work, bridges, locomotives, rolling stock, tickets, connections, parking, access, track, signals, stations, capital work, and intermodal terminals; financing plans and prospectuses; public-private partnerships; and acquiring locomotives, rolling stock, track, and signal equipment. No assistance may fund planning for the Northeast Corridor main line DC–Boston. (c) Selection may consider the corridor’s relation to national policy; focus on sustained 125-mph systems; metropolitan and statewide integration; connections within the Nation and abroad; effects on other-mode congestion; help with Clean Air Act compliance; State, local, and private support including rolling stock; ridership; capital costs including crossings; employment; community effects; whether revenues and commitments cover capital, operating, and maintenance costs; route, improvement, and capacity-study completion; and Secretary designation as a high-speed corridor.
The Secretary* may provide under this section financial assistance* to a public agency or group of public agencies for corridor planning for up to 50 percent of the publicly financed costs* associated with eligible activities.
No less than 20 percent of the publicly financed costs associated with eligible activities shall come from State* and local sources, which State and local sources may not include funds from any Federal program.
A corridor planning activity is eligible for financial assistance under subsection (a) if the Secretary determines that it is necessary to establish appropriate engineering, operational, financial, environmental, or socioeconomic projections for the establishment of high-speed rail* service in the corridor and that it leads toward development of a prudent financial and institutional plan for implementation of specific high-speed rail improvements, or if it is an activity described in subparagraph (M). Eligible corridor planning activities include—
environmental assessments;
feasibility studies emphasizing commercial technology improvements or applications;
economic analyses, including ridership, revenue, and operating expense forecasting;
assessing the impact on rail employment of developing high-speed rail corridors;
assessing community economic impacts;
coordination with State and metropolitan area transportation planning and corridor planning with other States;
operational planning;
route selection analyses and purchase of rights-of-way for proposed high-speed rail service;
preliminary engineering and design;
identification of specific improvements to a corridor, including electrification, line straightening and other right-of-way improvements, bridge rehabilitation and replacement, use of advanced locomotives and rolling stock, ticketing, coordination with other modes of transportation, parking and other means of passenger access, track, signal, station, and other capital work, and use of intermodal terminals;
preparation of financing plans and prospectuses;
creation of public/private partnerships; and
the acquisition of locomotives, rolling stock, track, and signal equipment.
No financial assistance shall be provided under this section for corridor planning with respect to the main line of the Northeast Corridor, between Washington, District of Columbia, and Boston, Massachusetts.
Selection by the Secretary of recipients of financial assistance under this section shall be based on such criteria as the Secretary considers appropriate, including—
the relationship of the corridor to the Secretary’s national high-speed ground transportation policy;
the extent to which the proposed planning focuses on systems which will achieve sustained speeds of 125 mph or greater;
the integration of the corridor into metropolitan area and statewide transportation planning;
the potential interconnection of the corridor with other parts of the Nation’s transportation system, including the interconnection with other countries;
the anticipated effect of the corridor on the congestion of other modes of transportation;
whether the work to be funded will aid the efforts of State and local governments to comply with the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 7401 et seq.);
the past and proposed financial commitments and other support of State and local governments and the private sector to the proposed high-speed rail program, including the acquisition of rolling stock;
the estimated level of ridership;
the estimated capital cost of corridor improvements, including the cost of closing, improving, or separating highway-rail grade crossings;
rail transportation employment impacts;
community economic impacts;
the extent to which the projected revenues of the proposed high-speed rail service, along with any financial commitments of State or local governments and the private sector, are expected to cover capital costs and operating and maintenance expenses;
whether a specific route has been selected, specific improvements identified, and capacity studies completed; and
whether the corridor has been designated as a high-speed rail corridor by the Secretary.
Source credit: (Added Pub. L. 103–440, title I, § 103(a)(2), Nov. 2, 1994, 108 Stat. 4616; amended Pub. L. 109–59, title IX, § 9001(a)(1), Aug. 10, 2005, 119 Stat. 1918; Pub. L. 110–432, div. B, title V, § 501(a), Oct. 16, 2008, 122 Stat. 4959.)
- 1994Enacted · Pub. L. 103-440 · 108 Stat. 4616
- 2005Amended · Pub. L. 109-59 · 119 Stat. 1918
- 2008Amended · Pub. L. 110-432 · 122 Stat. 4959
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 103-440 on 1994-11-02.
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