With Americans searching for relief from painful gasoline prices and frustrating delays at the nation’s airports, Congress must look to developing effective, efficient transportation alternatives.

Both in the short and long term, the United States must consider other transportation options for shorter passenger transportation service in densely populated, congested corridors, such as the Northeast Corridor.

Here, high-speed rail service is the only viable choice. High-speed rail has the ability to move millions of people from center city to center city while requiring less fuel and providing cost savings.

Unfortunately, Amtrak retains the national franchise for all passenger rail service in the United States. By any measure, Amtrak’s Soviet-style, money-losing operation of long-distance passenger rail service and its monopoly of high-speed service has had a checkered past.  Amtrak’s Acela acquisition and operational problems have resulted in lawsuits, equipment failures, costly mismanagement and “high-speed” train service that averages only 83 miles per hour in the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and New York City.  

The right-of-way from Washington to New York, and a good portion of the route on to Boston, is the only major right-of-way and corridor that Amtrak owns. This is the logical place to start developing true high-speed rail service in the United States, which, by the rest of the world’s standards, averages at least 120 miles per hour.

Undertaking this kind of infrastructure project, which must include separation of rail traffic and reconstruction of aged tunnels and bridges, will require an investment of billions of dollars. Amtrak does not have the capacity or track record to develop that high-speed corridor.

Congress must seriously consider adopting a plan I have included in House-passed Amtrak reauthorization legislation (H.R. 6003) to seek private-sector proposals to build, finance and operate Washington-to-New York high-speed rail service. The legislation requires downtown-to-downtown rail service in less than two hours, with stops along the way. In addition, the plan will enhance commuter passenger service and freight rail capacity by separating high-speed service in the corridor. The bill also requires an evaluation of the economic potential of the underperforming and underutilized corridor. Imagine the resulting development income from new entities, planned development rather than unattractive and unsightly conditions, and a viable jobs and economic generator.

Imagine if the system was constructed and operated similarly to Virgin Rail in England’s north-south corridor: an innovative high-speed rail system that pays its own way.

And imagine a rail solution that would dramatically impact air traffic congestion in a region that accounts for about three-fourths of all our nation’s chronically delayed flights. In the next two decades, aircraft movements are expected to double while runway capacity is projected to remain nearly flat at most major congested airports. Air traffic congestion and delays will not be resolved solely by installation of next generation (NextGen) air traffic control technology. This modernization initiative will take nearly two decades to equip all aircraft, build ground stations and complete the retrofitting of our air traffic control system.  Even once NextGen is operational, aircraft will only be able to fly marginally closer together and no additional aircraft will be able to land at already congested airports in extreme weather conditions, such as snow or thunderstorms. The opening of airspace, congestion pricing and slot lotteries only reshuffle the crowded deck.

With Northeast Corridor high-speed rail as a model, we can then replicate service in corridors throughout the nation where it makes the most sense.

Americans are changing the way they think about transportation. They are seeking greater efficiency and more choices. High-speed rail is an efficient, cost-effective, environmentally sound transportation alternative that can relieve congestion on our overburdened highways and at our airports. It works in other countries; it’s time the United States finally made this smart and necessary investment in its infrastructure.

Mica is the ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.