The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 created Amtrak to provide intercity passenger rail service because existing railroads found such service to be unprofitable. Amtrak operates a 22,000-mile network, primarily over freight railroad tracks, providing service to 46 states and the District of Columbia. Amtrak owns about 650 miles of track, primarily on the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. In fiscal year 2002, Amtrak served 23.4 million passengers, or about 64,000 passengers per day. According to Amtrak, about two-thirds of its ridership is wholly or partially on the Northeast Corridor. Amtrak acquired the Northeast Corridor in 1976 from the Consolidated Rail Corporation as part of the disposition of the Penn Central Transportation Company’s assets. At the time, the Penn Central Transportation Company and certain other Northeastern railroads were in bankruptcy. As required by the Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, the purpose of this acquisition was to facilitate improved high-speed passenger rail service. However, Amtrak is neither the exclusive owner nor the exclusive user of the Northeast Corridor. Although Amtrak is the owner and operator of the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington, D.C. (called the “south-end”), other organizations, including the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CDOT), and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York (MTA), own significant portions of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and New York City (called the “north-end”). (See fig. 1.) Both Amtrak and commuter rail trains operate on these segments of track: MBTA provides commuter rail service between Boston and Providence, Rhode Island; Shore Line East provides commuter rail service between New London and New Haven, Connecticut; and Metro-North Railroad provides commuter rail service between New Haven and New Rochelle, New York. In fiscal year 2002, Amtrak accounted for 10 percent of the number of intercity and commuter rail trains operated on the north-end of the Northeast Corridor, and commuter railroads accounted for 90 percent. Six freight railroads also operate on the Northeast Corridor and, in fiscal year 2001, these freight railroads operated 38 trains per day on the Northeast Corridor. In contrast, in the same year Amtrak and commuter railroads operated approximately 470 trains per day on just the north-end of the Northeast Corridor. The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 (4R Act) formally established the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project. Among other things, the 4R Act authorized Amtrak to make improvements to the right-of-way between Boston and Washington, D.C., needed to enable high- speed rail service, and it established certain goals for the project. In particular, within 5 years of the 4R Act’s enactment, the project was to achieve regularly scheduled and dependable intercity passenger rail service between Boston and New York City in 3 hours 40 minutes, and between New York City and Washington, D.C., in 2 hours 40 minutes. The ultimate goal was to achieve service between Boston and New York City in 3 hours, and between New York City and Washington, D.C., in 2 hours 30 minutes. The act directed the Secretary of Transportation to determine the practicability of meeting these latter goals and authorized $1.75 billion to accomplish them as well as make certain other improvements on routes related to the Northeast Corridor (such as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Massachusetts). The act did not specify a time by which these latter goals were to be met, but did require a status report within two years after the 4R Act was enacted. Under the act, FRA was the project manager. Amtrak was a subcontractor primarily responsible for track and signal work. The Passenger Railroad Rebuilding Act of 1980 (P.L. 96-254) called for transferring responsibility for the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project from FRA to Amtrak by October 1985. FRA officials told us that at the time of this transfer, they generally considered the project to be complete in that additional funding for remaining major work elements was not envisioned. Although the project had achieved significant improvements to the entire Northeast Corridor, its principal focus had been on the south-end of the corridor because of the significant deterioration of the infrastructure on this segment of the line. An Amtrak official told us that the emphasis had been largely on addressing infrastructure maintenance and repair issues, not on enhancing the Northeast Corridor to accommodate high-speed rail service. Consequently, although the project met the 2-hour-40-minute trip- time goal on the south-end of the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington, D.C., it did not meet either the 3-hour-40-minute or the 3-hour trip-time goals on the north-end of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and New York City. FRA attributed the failure to meet the trip-time goals for the north-end to a lack of funding, which prevented electrifying the line north of New Haven and making other improvements to track and structures. During the 1980s, funding for the project was reduced several times, and these reductions limited the scope of the project and led to the elimination of the north-end electrification work. In 1992, the Amtrak Authorization and Development Act (P.L. 102-533) required the Secretary of Transportation to develop a master plan for a new project, the goal of which was to provide intercity passenger rail service between Boston and New York City in 3 hours or less. The act authorized a total of $470 million for fiscal years 1993 and 1994 to plan this effort and make capital investments. Amtrak established the Northeast High-Speed Rail Improvement Project in response to this act. In July 1994, FRA issued a master plan for the project that called for a series of improvements designed to meet the act’s 3-hour trip-time goal and permit initiation of 3- hour service by 1999. FRA estimated a cost of about $3.1 billion (in 1993 dollars) for the project, of which about $1.9 billion (1993 dollars) would be required to achieve 3-hour rail service. The project was to be complete by the end of 2009. (See app. III for more information on the history of the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project and the Northeast High-Speed Rail Improvement Project.) Since its inception in 1970, Amtrak has struggled to earn revenues and operate efficiently. These struggles have continued in recent years, leading to proposals for restructuring the provision of intercity passenger rail service. These proposals range from keeping Amtrak intact and providing increased funding to improve its equipment and infrastructure, to breaking Amtrak up and introducing competing rail service. The creation of a separate infrastructure company has also been proposed as a means to maintain and rehabilitate the Northeast Corridor and other infrastructure for providing intercity passenger rail service. Finally, a proposal has been made to delegate much of the responsibility for intercity passenger rail service to states and have states (acting through interstate compacts) provide a larger share of the funding and make decisions about intercity passenger rail service. As of September 2003, these proposals were pending before Congress. One or more of these proposals may influence how large- scale intercity passenger rail infrastructure projects are managed in the future. The federal government is also likely to be involved in future large-scale intercity passenger rail infrastructure projects as high-speed rail corridors are developed around the country. As of January 2002, there were 10 federally designated high-speed rail corridors nationwide. We reported in March 2001 that 34 states were participating in the development of high- speed rail corridors and that those states had invested more than $1 billion to improve local rail lines for that purpose. Federally designated corridors may be eligible for federal funds. The total cost to develop high-speed rail corridors is unknown. However, in April 2003, we reported that preliminary estimates of the cost to develop these corridors could be between $50 billion and $70 billion over the next 20 years. Amtrak has not met the goal of 3-hour rail service between Boston and New York City, although it has reduced the scheduled trip time from about 4 hours in 1994 to 3 hours 24 minutes in 2003. To do this, it completed the first milestone in FRA’s 1994 master plan—initiate electrified train service between Boston and New York City—in January 2000, and it acquired enough high-speed trains to begin limited high-speed rail service in December 2000. However, it initiated these activities later than planned, and, according to the latest available data (from March 2003), nearly three- quarters of the work elements (12 of 17 work elements) needed to complete the second milestone—initiate 3-hour service—are incomplete or their status is unknown. Progress toward completing the third and final milestone—completing infrastructure improvements designed to enhance track capacity and extend the life of existing track assets—has also been slower than planned. In total, as of March 2003, Amtrak, commuter rail authorities, and other stakeholders had completed 21 of the project’s 72 work elements—51 were either incomplete or their status was unknown. Of these 51 work elements, according to FRA and commuter rail officials, several (such as realignment of curves) are important to achieving the 3- hour goal. As of March 2003, Amtrak, commuter railroads, and other stakeholders had spent about $3.2 billion on the project. How much more work will be done is uncertain. Several Amtrak officials said that they consider the project complete, even though the 3-hour trip-time goal has not been met and many work elements are incomplete.