While high-speed rail has struggled to secure adequate financing in the U.S., in Britain, the government has given the green light to begin construction on the country's second bullet train. The U.K. government's decision to move forward with the controversial project offers important lessons as the U.S. pursues its own high-speed rail corridors in California and the Northeast.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality recently selected the Northeast Corridor's environmental review process, which will begin early this year, as a case study in a new pilot program that seeks to pioneer new ways of speeding the delivery of important infrastructure projects. This will allow projects to fix and upgrade the existing rail corridor and construct a new high-speed rail line to begin more quickly, creating much needed jobs, improving rail service, and generating enormous economic benefits for the Northeast Megaregion over time. The Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility applauds the selection of the Northeast Corridor for an expedited environmental review. We hope further time-saving techniques can be found and pioneered in the Northeast that can be applied to similar environmental studies around the country, aiding our national economic recovery.

Best Wishes to All for a Happy New Year!

This year will be a defining time for the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak is set to release an update to its high-speed rail proposal within the next few weeks, followed by a detailed financial and business plan for the Northeast Corridor by mid-year. The first phase of the corridor-wide environmental review process will get under way. The International Union of Railways is hosting the 8th World Congress on High-Speed Rail in Philadelphia in July.

So, we thought we'd start the year off with a couple of New Years Resolutions for the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility. Over the coming months, the Business Alliance plans to work with members of Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Amtrak to make sure that when the 113th Congress meets for the first time in January 2013, it will be ready to make substantial investments in our passenger rail network in order to increase the Northeast Megaregion's global competitiveness. Read more about our goals for 2012 after the break.

Last year, the Business Alliance for Northeast Mobility worked hard to convince Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Amtrak to invest in passenger rail infrastructure in the Northeast Megaregion and expand the capacity by developing a world-class high-speed rail line. This advocacy work contributed to several major successes. Read about all of the highlights from last year after the jump.

On November 18th, Congress passed a 2012 "minibus" bill, H.R. 2112, and President Obama signed it into law the next day, which included $15 million to begin designing a new rail tunnel into Manhattan.

The minibus bill combined several annual spending bills, including the FY 2012 Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill and a continuing resolution that funds the government through December 16th. The final version of the bill was not very rail-friendly, but it could have been a lot worse. The bill provides no new funding for high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants despite a Senate amendment that would have provided $100 million to the program, which was struck in conference. Amtrak's capital grant was set at $952 million, a small increase from FY 2011, as well as $466 million for operations, a major decrease from the FY 2011 enacted level of $562 million. Fortunately, the bill did not include language that was proposed by the House that would have prevented Amtrak from funding state-supported routes. This provision would have shuttered service on many of these popular routes.

The bill also included a $15 million grant to Amtrak to begin preliminary design and engineering on the Gateway project. This project would consist of building new tracks between Newark Penn Station and Manhattan, new four-track, high-level bridges in New Jersey, replacing of the 100+ year old Portal Bridge, digging two new tunnels under the Hudson River, and expanding Penn Station to the south of Madison Square Garden, including seven new tracks and four new platforms. Eventually, these new platforms would be connected to the existing platforms at Penn Station.

The new tunnels would provide much needed redundancy and operational flexibility for Amtrak and NJ Transit as the existing Trans-Hudson tunnels are aging and will require major structural maintenance in the coming years.

The first phase of a Northeast Corridor high-speed rail project should connect New York and Philadelphia, Bob Yaro, president of Regional Plan Association, told the audience at a forum on high-speed rail in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

High-speed rail would cut travel times to 34 minutes between New York Penn Station and a new, high-speed rail station in downtown Philadelphia at Market East. This new station would be strategically located at the center of the largest job cluster in the Greater Philadelphia region. This phase of the project would require two new dedicated tracks, new railroad cars, and new tunnels under the Hudson River west of Manhattan and under Center City Philadelphia.