FEDERAL PASSENGER RAIL EXPANSION PUBLIC COMMENTS

To: Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

From: Climate Revolution Action Network

RE: Passenger Rail Expansion

Americans have been begging for railroad expansion, and this is the chance for the Federal Rail Administration to do the right thing. We need reliable high speed railways that prioritizes network connectivity and does not put freight service above riders.

Good public transportation is integrated with other local transit services in physical location, operational coordination, and quality customer experience. A successful system needs support travel from anywhere to anywhere in the network, not just to specific locations such as major city central business districts. Network planning, rather than isolated corridor or operator lead planning, is needed to bring together service, operations, and infrastructure planning to focus improvements to deliver a coherent rail network.

Climate Revolution Action Network (CRAN) supports continued efforts to expand rail but encourages FRA to plan in reliability to their networks. Passengers being able to take a train is great but passengers being confident about routes, timing, pricing, and safety is critical. If we want more transportation users to travel on rail we have to do it right, the first time.