The Biden administration announced Monday that it has awarded more than $1.4 billion to projects that improve railway safety and boost capacity, with much of the money coming from the 2021 infrastructure law.
“These projects will make American rail safer, more reliable, and more resilient, delivering tangible benefits to dozens of communities where railroads are located, and strengthening supply chains for the entire country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The money is funding 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Railroad safety has become a key concern nationwide ever since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in February. President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to hold the train’s operator Norfolk Southern accountable for the crash, but a package of proposed rail safety reforms has stalled in the Senate where the bill is still awaiting a vote. The White House is also saying that a possible government shutdown because of House Republicans would undermine railway safety.
The projects include track upgrades and bridge repairs, in addition to improving the connectivity among railways and making routes less vulnerable to extreme weather.
Here in Europe sleeper trains went through quite a slump, DB even got rid of their whole fleet, then ÖBB started to conceptualise sleeper trains not as trains with beds but as hotels on wheels and their most expensive tickets sell so well that they increased the number of expensive seats erm cots on their train. You can also get what’s essentially capsules and a seat, no more of that “four person cabin or bust” type of attitude of ole.
Yes, you could take high-speed rail and arrive the same day, then sleep in a hotel, then do what you came to do. Or you can spend actually less and stay in a maybe modest, but definitely nice hotel for one night and arrive in the morning.
And the little things matter. If your breakfast buns aren’t crisp (plenty of room on a train for an oven) and your coffee is as bad as what Starbucks calls coffee don’t even start.
As to distance: In principle a high-speed sleeper train could do NY to LA in one night, something like 12-14 hours. Certainly not with the current rail infrastructure, though.