Northeast Corridor Future: Approach to Integrating Transportation Planning and National Environmental Policy Act

The 457-mile (735 km) Northeast Corridor (NEC) anchored by Boston‘s South Station in the north, New York‘s Pennsylvania Station in the center, and Washington, D.C.‘s Union Station in the south, is one of the most heavily traveled rail corridors in the world. Shared by intercity, commuter, and freight operations, the NEC is an unmatched asset, moving more than 259 million passengers and 14 million car-miles of freight per year. The NEC faces serious challenges, with century-old infrastructure, outdated technology, and inadequate capacity to meet current or projected demand. With similar capacity issues on the region‘s highways, and some of the most congested airports in the nation, the Northeast‘s economic future is in jeopardy. Responding to these pressing issues, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) initiated the NEC FUTURE program, a comprehensive planning effort to define, evaluate, and prioritize future transportation investments in the NEC. The planning effort includes the preparation of a Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan that comprises a Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement and Service Development Plan. This paper outlines the FRA‘s approach to integrate the alternatives development process and the evaluation of the environmental impacts of those alternatives. As the NEC FUTURE program continues, through 2016, this approach will create a framework for investment that balances the needs of various users of the corridor in a manner that ensures safe and efficient travel throughout the Northeast. The planning process and analytic tools used for NEC FUTURE can serve as best practices for other similar corridor studies.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AR020 Passenger Rail Equipment and Systems Integration. Alternate title: NEC FUTURE: An Approach to Integrating Transportation Planning and the National Environmental Policy Act.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Camay, Stephanie
    • Siegel, Ruby
    • Reyes-Alicea, Rebecca
    • Castelli, Amishi
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2015

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References;
  • Pagination: 16p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01552822
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 15-0517
  • Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Feb 5 2015 11:10AM