7 The Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an extremely important region of development in the United States. As the historical core of the country, the string of states along the Atlantic Coast boast some of the county’s highest-density population centers, all within very short distances of each other. This compact, linear distribution of populations and economies make it an area extremely well-suited to rail transit, as is evidenced by the current development of conventional rail in the region.
The currently developed rail systems and intense ridership make the region a key candidate for high speed rail development . The main spine of the NEC, capped on the north end by Boston’s South Station and on the south end by D.C.’s Union Station, is 457 miles long, used by 2,200 passenger trains carrying 720,000 passengers daily ("Program Overview"). The NEC, is by far the most used rail line in the United States. Amtrak’s Acela trains, the fastest trains in the United States, while not high speed by international standards, run exclusively along the NEC. In many areas, especially in major transit hubs such as New York City, the rail lines and rail stations are running consistently above capacity, creating an urgent need for expansion. For these reasons, transportation and environmental planners have turned their eyes to the NEC as a prime rail development region.
South Station*
Penn Station/Moynihan Station*
Union Station*
Learnig Cluster Case Studies
*
map from http://www.necfuture.com/pdfs/fall_2013_fact_sheet.pdf
figures from http://www.necfuture.com/pdfs/2012_dec_dialogues.pdf
Figure 1