NEC Now is a legislative proposal for the reauthorization of the expiring federal rail legislation, the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA), that puts a new emphasis on the Northeast Corridor, North America’s busiest and most complex rail corridor, situated in the dense and productive Northeast Megaregion, where 18% of the U.S. population lives and 20% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product is produced on only 2% of its land area. The NEC Now legislative proposal charts a path forward for the Northeast Corridor. It proposes a new institutional and financing framework that would initiate and facilitate a comprehensive, corridor-wide overhaul. It calls for the creation of a new federal grant program, changes to the Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing (RRIF) program, and new governance structures for project selection, management and finance.

The NEC Now infrastructure program is a potential first phase program of capital improvements that should be initiated and accelerated over the next six years, or prior to the expiration of the next federal rail bill. The program includes the corridor’s highest-priority infrastructure needs, as well as the construction of a high-speed bypass for Acela trains in New Jersey that, along with other projects in the NEC Now infrastructure program, would cut trip times between New York and Philadelphia to approximately 55 minutes.