A U.S. company working with the Central Japan Railway Co. envisions a magnetically levitated, or maglev, passenger route along the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and New York City that will reduce travel time to an hour. Work on an environmental impact statement is looming "in the next couple of months" for the first phase between Washington and Baltimore, according to Nazih Haddad, executive vice president with The Northeast Maglev.
Haddad led two major efforts to implement high-speed rail in Florida when he was with the state Dept. of Transportation but was rebuffed by Republican governors. He told members of the Transportation Research Forum's New York chapter last month that the Maryland Dept. of Transportation expected to hear soon from the Federal Railroad Administration regarding a $28-million application for a grant that would help fund further design and permitting.