Democrats reintroduce $205 billion national high speed rail bill

Al Drago/Bloomberg

High-speed rail advocates in the House reintroduced Tuesday a bill that would spend $205 billion over five years for bullet train planning, construction and technology.

Similar bills have failed to gain traction in previous sessions.

Introduced by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., the American High-Speed Rail Act of 2026 has already gained 48 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

"America deserves the same world-class high-speed rail system that other countries across the globe have had now for decades," Moulton said in a statement.

The bill would allocate $41 billion of federal dollars a year, giving priority to high-speed rail projects based on equity, resilience and economic development potential.

It would promote private capital and public-private partnerships as part of the financing process. It encourages private investment through grants and loan eligibility, including allowing the use of federal funds to support Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan credit risk premiums.

Another provision increases the flexibility for the timing and sources of the non-federal cost share, including private funding and RRIF and Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loans.

Before joining Congress in 2015, Moulton was director of the Texas Central Railway bullet train project. Dogged by controversy since its proposal in 2014, the Dallas-Houston project was singled out in the fiscal 2027 Department of Transportation budget introduced last week. The budget would ban the use of federal funds for a high-speed rail system "that is the same or substantially similar" to Texas Central.

Similarly, the House version of a five-year surface transportation bill bans federal support for California's high-speed rail project, which has been the target of Republican criticism for years. The provision prohibits any federal grants, awards or financial assistance to the California high-speed rail project for two years while a working group conducts a "comprehensive assessment" of the project.

The U.S. has a handful of high-speed rail projects, mostly in planning states, across the country. In addition to the fledgling Texas Central proposal and California's controversial bullet train, which is the only line that is under construction, other projects include Brightline West's proposed electric train between Las Vegas and suburban Los Angeles. The project remains in limbo while the Fortress-backed company waits to hear if the Trump administration will award it a critical $6 billion federal loan.

Also on the West Coast, the 413-mile Cascadia High Speed Rail project between Eugene, Ore. and Vancouver, BC, won a small federal planning grant in late 2024. The project is supported by Microsoft as well as other local and business leaders.

Neither the Brightline Florida intercity train or Amtrak's Acela on the East Coast are considered true high speed.

Moulton introduced similar bills in 2020, 2021 and 2024, all of which stalled. The High Speed Rail Alliance urged its members to ask their representatives to support the bill. "This is the level of commitment needed to truly begin developing a national high-speed rail network," the alliance said.