Reuters: White House Weighs High-Speed Rail Investment

From Reuters:

The Obama administration is seriously considering an effort to develop high speed passenger rail service, an initiative long on planning but unrealized nationally because of financial and logistical hurdles and insufficient political backing.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Wednesday said his agency has submitted a report to the White House outlining at least six corridors for possible service as well as cost and timeline estimates.  "This is going to be President Obama's, I believe, top transportation priority," LaHood told reporters. "They asked us to give them as much information as we could."  LaHood did not identify rail corridors other than to say it would be a national effort. High speed initiatives are in various stages of planning in California, Florida, Nevada, the Carolinas, the Northeast and the Midwest.