The High-Speed Rail Development in the Northeast Megaregion of the United States: A Conceptual Analysis

1. INTRODUCTION Megapolitan region or megaregion consists of networks of interconnected, interpenetrated metropolitan/micropolitan areas with close economic, infrastructural, ecological, environmental, and cultural linkages. However, this construct has not been examined in any depth, except by proponents in the America 2050 movement (Ross, 2009). The research on megaregion is recently surging because it has become the hot spot of global economic competition. Many pressing planning issues are megapolitan in nature, transcending individual city, county, or even metropolitan boundaries (Carbonell and Yaro, 2005; Lang and Dhavale, 2005; Regional Plan Association, 2007; Ross, 2009). It is expected that by 2030, for the first time in history, two out of three people will live in urban areas, especially in the megaregions (Amekudzi, Thomas-Mobley and Ross, 2007). Global cities or world cities are all interconnected and located in megaregions, forming integral components of the so-called network society (Castells, 1996; Derudder, Witlox and Taylor, 2007; Taylor, Catalano and Walker, 2002; Taylor and Lang, 2005). In spite of different delineation criteria, it is generally agreed that the United States (U.S.) has about ten megaregions. For example, the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Team has identified the following ten megaregions in the U.S.: Northeast, Midwest, Piedmont, Peninsula, Gulf Coast, I-35 Corridor, Valley of the Sun, Cascadia, Norcal, and Southland (Lang and Dhavale, 2005). These megaregions are America's economic engines and deserve a new American Spatial Development Perspective, similar to the European Spatial Development Perspective, which is a set of policy directives and strategies adopted by the European Union in 1999 (Faludi, 2002). Of these ten megaregions, the Northeast Megaregion, which was coined as "megalopolis" by Gottmann (1961) and "liquid city" by Short (2007), is the largest agglomeration of people and economic activities in the Northeast U.S. stretching from southern Maine to northern Virginia, including such large cities as Boston, New York (Central City), Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. (Regional Plan Association, 2007). This megaregion has 1.5%, 18%, and 20% of the country's land, population, and gross domestic products (GDP), respectively, demonstrating its predominant status. Schwieterman and Scheidt (2007) estimate that 65.7% of the proposed HSR mileages in the U.S. are located in megaregions (Ross, 2008), suggesting the importance of a megaregion as a proper geographic unit for high-speed rail (HSR) analysis. The ten new HSR corridors designated by the Obama Administration all traverse the U.S. megaregions (Federal Railroad Administration, 2009). Within the Northeast Megaregion, HSR will become a promising transportation mode upon further improvements and upgrading in the future. Hagler and Todorovich (2009) indicate that HSR Regional service, for which Acela Express of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) qualifies, provides a relief for highway and air operating in these markets, as demonstrated by Amtrak's current 64 percent market share for air and rail trips (14 percent of total intercity trips) that begin and end in New York and Washington, D.C. The New York to Washington, D.C. market is the top pair to deploy HSR in the U.S. based on the six criteria they developed (metropolitan size, distance, transit connections, economic productivity, congestion, and megaregion). In its 1996 plan entitled "A Region at Risk: The Third Regional Plan for the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut Metropolitan Area," the Regional Plan Association (RPA) had already called for building the intercity high-speed rail system to fill existing gaps in the regional system and make traveling throughout the entire New York region by rail (Calthorpe and Fulton, 2001). Following this introduction, this paper contains four parts. …