Tell Congress to support American high-speed rail!

On August 28, 2025, Amtrak launched 5 of 28 new next-generation Acela trains on the Northeast Corridor rail lines linking Boston and Washington D.C. Described as America’s first “European-style” trains, they can reach 160 miles per hour, 10 mph faster than the previous generation. Under some definitions, that’s enough to qualify as “high-speed rail” trains, which would be America’s first! They’re also lighter and contain 27% more seating.

“On behalf of everyone at Amtrak, I’m proud to welcome you aboard NextGen Acela. The future of high-speed rail starts now.”

— Amtrak President Roger Harris.

Amtrak is also seeing steadily increasing ridership! Fiscal Year 2024 saw an all-time record high of 32.8 million Amtrak customers, and 2025 is looking even better so far.

This is welcome progress. But America still needs and deserves much better train infrastructure. Bullet trains in Asia and Europe routinely top 200 miles per hour, and this rollout of Amtrak’s 160 mile per hour trains is finally arriving after having been delayed for years.

There are many policy opportunities available to advance high-speed rail in the USA! An Amtrak project to build a high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas is being discussed, while private company Brightline recently built a rail link between Miami and Orlando. Brightline is also planning a train line between Las Vegas and Southern California, to be built on an interstate highway median.

Congress should support the development of affordable American high-speed rail infrastructure, funding Amtrak, making highway medians available for rail projects, and integrating operational and technical lessons from faster-to-deploy and lower-cost rail buildouts in Asia and Europe.

Tell Congress to support American high-speed rail!