Cuomo proposes new plan for high-speed rail in New York

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday proposed a new plan for developing high-speed rail service on Amtrak's Empire Corridor in New York.

Cuomo will task a panel of engineers to reexamine past high-speed rail plans and recommend a new plan for how to build high-speed rail for the corridor, which connects the state through New York City, Albany and Buffalo.

Most of the state's population lives a short distance from the Empire Corridor, where speeds along the rail lines currently average 51 mph, which makes the area the slowest available for New Yorkers, according to a press release issued by Cuomo's office.

"High-speed rail is transforming economies around the world. We've been told that bringing this technology to our state is too expensive, too difficult and would take too long — that's not an acceptable attitude for New York," Cuomo said.

Previous New York governors — including Cuomo's father, Gov. Mario Cuomo — had proposed high-speed rail plans that never came to fruition.

Recommendations to implement high-speed rail across the state, which have not changed much over the past two decades, have consistently estimated that projects would take decades and be unaffordable.

The new panel will review those past studies, as well as strategies in other countries have used to build high-speed rail, to develop new recommendations for the state.