We strongly favor the bill before you, S 1588, which authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to undertake research and development in high-speed ground transportation. The transportation requirements in the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, which now accommodates 150,000 daily trips between the New York Metropolitan Region and other metropolitan areas, will increase more rapidly than population over the next twenty years, and we expect population to rise about 30 percent. Providing facilities to handle this demand involves a choice among additional airports, additional highway lanes and increased rail use, which would occur with higher rail speeds. We believe that the research proposed in S 1588 will demonstrate that these transportation needs can be met most efficiently through high-speed rail service.
Until recently, the federal government invested in various forms of transportation separately-in high-speed expressways, in research and development of new aircraft and air traffic controls, in airports, in river navigation and ocean transport. Now, with the Mass Transportation Act of 1964 and with the bill before you, the federal government seems, very wisely, to be looking at transportation as a whole. This requires investigating the most efficient ways of moving people and goods, not simply improvements in particular modes of transport, each looked at separately.
Regional Plan became interested in the potential of high-speed rail transportation along the Northeast Corridor in 1960 while conducting a study on Commuter Transportation for this Committee. Travel patterns in our own metropolitan area had become entangled with those of other metropolitan areas in the Corridor, and projected population growth promised to entangle them more. Furthermore, the planning of transportation and land use for the New York Region will become increasingly affected by Northeast Corridor transportation.
