The Northeast Corridor kisses the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, and our previous plans have a new high speed rail line running from New York City to Scranton, PA and Binghamton, NY. We should next focus on connecting Philadelphia, the corridor's second biggest city, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's western Metropolis.
This would create a more than 340 mile east-west connector for the 6th most populous state paralleling the Pennsylvania Turnpike both in route and in economic significance.
The corridor is already half-way built with Amtrak's Keystone Connection, a 110mph electrified rail line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. It would not take much work for this rail line to be upgraded to true high speed status. West of Harrisburg, the tracks go through the rugged Allegheny region of Pennsylvania. Substantial expensive upgrades would be needed here.
This would provide US High speed rail's first connector towards the midwest as Pittsburgh is within a short distance of both Ohio and Michigan, clearing the Appalachian barrier to our growing imaginary high speed rail system.
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