Provides information on the ownership, usage of, and operations over, the Northeast corridor; the projects and costs associated with improvements to allow high-speed operations on the north end of the corridor; and the capital investment needed in the south end of the corridor. Charts and tables

Provides information on the ownership, usage of, and operations over the Northeast corridor; the projects and costs associated with improvements to allow high-speed operations on the north end of the corridor; and the capital investment needed in the south end of the corridor.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the operation of National Railroad Passenger Corporation (AMTRAK) trains in the Northeast Corridor, focusing on: (1) issues associated with the practice of operating each train with only one engineer; (2) the cost of stationing an additional engineer in each train; (3) AMTRAK safety records in the Northeast Corridor; and (4) changes in engineers' work schedules. GAO found that AMTRAK has installed equipment in all of its Northeast Corridor locomotives that automatically stops each train if: (1) the engineer does not reset the system every 26 to 28 seconds; (2) speed signals are not obeyed within 6 seconds; or (3) the locomotive exceeds authorized speeds. AMTRAK checks the safety equipment on each locomotive daily to ensure proper operation. Since there have been only 13 instances of equipment malfunction identified in over 5 years, GAO and AMTRAK believe that both the equipment and the inspection procedures are adequate. GAO also found that: (1) it would cost approximately $16.5 million annually to place a second engineer in the cab of each Northeast Corridor train; (2) over a 5-year period, engineers did not have any health problems at work that affected their ability to operate trains; and (3) while the number of deaths of trespassers and AMTRAK maintenance employees did not change significantly over the same 5-year period, the number of injuries to trespassers and employees declined significantly. In addition, GAO found that: (1) an agreement between AMTRAK and the engineers' union increased the number of round trips that each engineer could make in a month; and (2) while engineers make more trips each month, no appreciable change has occurred in engineers' work schedules under the agreement.

All aboard for the first comprehensive history of the hard-working and wildly influential Northeast Corridor. Traversed by thousands of trains and millions of riders, the Northeast Corridor might be America’s most famous railway, but its influence goes far beyond the right-of-way. David Alff welcomes readers aboard to see how nineteenth-century train tracks did more than connect Boston to Washington, DC. They transformed hundreds of miles of Atlantic shoreline into a political capital, a global financial hub, and home to fifty million people. The Northeast Corridor reveals how freight trains, commuter rail, and Amtrak influenced—and in turn were shaped by—centuries of American industrial expansion, metropolitan growth, downtown decline, and revitalization. Paying as much attention to Aberdeen, Trenton, New Rochelle, and Providence as to New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, Alff provides narrative thrills for history buffs, train enthusiasts, and adventurers alike. What’s more, he offers a glimpse into the future of the corridor. New infrastructural plans—supported by President Joe Biden, famously Amtrak’s biggest fan—envision ever-faster trains zipping along technologically advanced rails. Yet those tracks will literally sit atop a history that links the life of Frederick Douglass, who fled to freedom by boarding a train in Baltimore, to the Frederick Douglass Tunnel, which is expected to be the newest link in the corridor by 2032. Trains have long made the places that make America, and they still do.