Moulton Statement on National High-Speed Rail Grant Announcements

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Moulton issued the following statement after the White House announced over $6 billion in funding for high-speed rail projects. Congressman Moulton is the leading advocate for high-speed rail in Congress. He sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee and co-leads the High-Speed Rail Caucus. Moulton's signature bill, the American High Speed Rail Act, which would invest $205 billion into high-speed rail, create at least 2.6 million direct American jobs over five years. The American High Speed Rail Act will be reintroduced in early 2024. 

“Americans deserve 21st-century infrastructure and a vision to get us there. Instead of just repairing old potholes and failing bridges, we need to modernize our infrastructure to give American’s better options to get where they’re going faster and more easily than we can today.

I am thrilled to see the nation’s first ever large-scale federal investment in high-speed rail. As one of the most vocal advocates for high-speed rail in Congress, I have been pushing for investments like this for years. We are woefully behind all of our peers, who have had high-speed rail for decades. Even Morocco, with half a percent of our GDP, has invested billions in a Casablanca-Tangier high-speed rail line. 

Not only will high-speed rail transform the way we travel, it will expand job and housing access exponentially. My bill, the American High Speed Rail Act, would create over $2 million jobs. 

While this money is a fraction of the total cost to build the routes, it is a critical step in the right direction. I am pleased that a significant amount of funding was dedicated to a few select projects. We have learned the lesson that spreading funding too thin, and across too many projects, ultimately just diminishes its impact. 

Next, let’s focus on getting the first project finished because seeing is believing. Americans can finally have what most of Europe and many countries across Asia already have.”