
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

GOVERNMENT BACKS HIGH-SPEED RAIL PLANS

Transportation Secretary Federico Pena on Wednesday announced the government's first plan to promote high-speed passenger rail outside the Washington-Boston corridor, saying he wants to ride on the first such train in four or five years.

Pena said the Clinton administration proposes to spend $1 billion over five years on high-speed corridors if states and private entrepreneurs agree to provide substantial financial support.

States would be responsible for planning and funding high-speed rail systems. Federal funds would go first to projects with substantial private investment.

Another $300 million would be spent on research and development, including development of a high-acceleration, nonelectric locomotive considered vital to developing corridors without spending large sums for overhead electric wires.

Although magnetic-levitation vehicles, theoretically capable of speeds faster than 300 mph, were not included in the legislation released Wednesday, Pena said he is committed to developing them.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, promised to push "diligently to move the legislation."

The program is less sweeping than the campaign promises of President Clinton, who envisioned trains traveling as fast as 300 mph between major cities. But Pena said it is a step toward that and more than any president has done.

Under the bill, states first would apply to designate a route as a corridor, providing details such as estimated cost and ridership and effect on congestion.

Corridors already designated under earlier legislation automatically would be included if the states reapplied - Washington-Richmond-Charlotte; Chicago to Milwaukee, Detroit and St. Louis; San Diego-San Francisco; Eugene, Ore.-Vancouver, B.C.; and Miami-Orlando-Tampa.

The federal government could finance as much as 80 percent of plan-development costs.

by CNB