“America’s economy is only going to grow as fast or as far as our transportation network will carry it,” FRA Administrator Joseph C. Szabo told the recent UIC 8th World Congress on High-Speed Rail in Philadelphia.

Keynoting a gala dinner in the Pennsylvania Convention Center’s Grand Hall, fashioned from the train shed of the city’s 1893 Reading Terminal, Szabo said he believes “American citizens understand much better than Congress what our country’s transportation system needs to look like in 10, 20, or even 50 years from now. They get it: that a 21st-century economy won’t run on a last-century transportation network.”

To a heavily international audience—representing such countries as Japan, France, and Germany that already rely on high-speed rail—Szabo conceded that “three years ago, when President Obama envisioned an America transformed by high-speed and higher-performing intercity passenger rail, there were skeptics. Critics called it too expensive, too ambitious, and said that Americans are way too in love with their cars.”

But, in contrast with that skepticism, he cited what he sees as encouraging U.S. trends, such as increasing public transportation ridership, especially among ages 16 to 34, and the decision earlier this month by California legislators to fund high-speed rail.

Szabo acknowledged that building a top-notch rail system would be a long-haul project. “We’re not naïve,” he said. “We certainly understand that the effort we’ve set off on is going to be a multigenerational effort. We know we have a long way to go.”

But, he continued, just as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s support for the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s “transformed our nation,” high-speed and higher-performing intercity passenger rail will serve as a “foundation that allows our economy to flourish.”

For example, in California, with its massive highway congestion, “it’s clear that high-speed rail is not a luxury: it’s a necessity,” Szabo said, adding: “The same goes for right here in America’s Northeast Corridor.”

He said FRA is “engaging states and stakeholders in a planning process to determine the most efficient way…to bring true high-speed rail to the East Coast.” He noted Amtrak’s recently announced vision of 37-minute rail service between Philadelphia and New York, about half the current travel time. Amtrak predicts achieving that goal by 2040.

Szabo listed other projects underway around the country, including the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, a nine-state cooperative to improve service and travel times among Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis, and other Midwestern cities; a proposed bullet train between Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth; and the Southeast High Speed Rail Project, which he said would cut in half the travel time between Raleigh, NC, and Washington, DC.

Earlier at the event, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said good transportation policy requires making “investments in things seen and often unseen by the public.” Nutter, the new president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said he would champion public transportation, which he believes should be exempt from partisan wrangling.

“There is no Democrat or Republican way to fix a railroad; there is no Democrat or Republican way to build new rail cars and systems,” he said. “It’s about jobs, it’s about economic vitality, it’s about shrinking our country so that we can move people and goods and services as quickly and efficiently and [in] as environmentally friendly [a way] as possible.”

Rina Cutler, Philadelphia’s deputy mayor for transportation and public utilities, told the conferees that “your timing could not be better” since “America has a choice to make about transportation.” She said: “Our future can hold crumbling infrastructure that impairs mobility [and] cripples commerce, or America’s transportation future can look like the best parts of our past.”

Noting that high-speed rail is “an expensive undertaking,” Cutler said, “There are those who say that America cannot afford great infrastructure. I say America cannot afford to not have great infrastructure.”

“Excuse the pun,” she added, “but we all need to get on board.” 

Introducing the speakers were UIC Director-General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, APTA President & CEO Michael Melaniphy, and Joseph M. Casey, general manager of Philadelphia’s Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Parsons Brinckerhoff sponsored the dinner.