This year, the Washington State Legislature allocated $4 million to continue work on a Cascadia Corridor high-speed rail and another $150 million to use as matching funds over the next six years to leverage federal funds available under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Now that there is a significant funding commitment, how can an effort in Cascadia take the lessons learned and build on the success of others?
That’s what a new Mobility Innovation Center project will examine, led by Dr. Jan Whittington of the Urban Infrastructure Lab and Associate Professor of Urban Design & Planning, and Dr. Qing Shen, Professor of Urban Design & Planning and an expert in transportation planning and policy. The project will examine the successes and lessons learned from other high-speed rail projects, both in the United States and internationally. The end result is intended to be helpful to agencies and decision-makers as they move forward with an innovative new way to travel in the region.