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Yesterday, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) spoke at the Transportation Research Board’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. The chairman of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials gave a presentation titled, “Perspectives and Outlook on Intercity Passenger Rail,” during which he reaffirmed his commitment to developing “true” high-speed rail in the United States and questioned the way stimulus funds are being doled out for high-speed projects.

With rising congestion and deteriorating roads, Shuster believes now’s the time to invest in high-speed and intercity passenger rail. However, the vast majority of the $8 billion in high-speed stimulus funds were allocated for lines that will only reach top speeds of 110 mph over existing freight tracks, often between smaller cities.

“Unfortunately, I think this record funding may end up as nothing but a missed opportunity. Instead of focusing on key corridors, scarce federal dollars have been spread too thin among too many different projects, leading to incremental progress that could slow our already-delayed entrance into high-speed rail,” he said. “Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity was the failure to invest in the Northeast Corridor … the corridor that presents the best opportunity for true high-speed rail and profitable service.”

As railroad subcommittee chairman, Shuster plans to “pursue an aggressive oversight agenda” to examine how high-speed rail projects have been funded.

“The Federal Railroad Administration had a specific evaluation process in place through which projects were rated and then ranked,” he said. “But it is unclear if the projects that received funding were in fact the projects that were rated and ranked the highest.”