Amtrak’s long-term ambitions for genuine high-speed trains in the Northeast Corridor include this intriguing local angle – a new rail line through Baltimore, with a station beneath Charles Center that could bring the city within 80 minutes of Manhattan.

Last week, Amtrak unveiled its plan for “next-generation” service in the 450-mile corridor between Washington and Boston that it said would result in trains reaching 220 mph. That’s the kind of speed now being developed in China and is a far cry from the average 75 mph of Acela express trains.

Rather than follow the present route circling around downtown (constructed during and after the Civil War), Amtrak proposes an alignment that would bisect the city with six miles of tunnel and a new station roughly in the vicinity of Charles and Fayette streets.

The station would be served by trains that would link Baltimore with New York City in 75-85 minutes depending on the number of intermediary stops – a dramatic improvement over today’s 2 hr.-15 min. to nearly 3 hour running times.

To be sure, all this is conceptual thinking – Amtrak provided relatively few details last week of its “vision” and admitted that such service wouldn’t be ready until 2030 or 2040 – but the fact that it is even thinking in such bold terms is significant.

Just a year ago, Amtrak was planning incremental upgrades to the Northeast Corridor and the Baltimore area. The latter included cosmetic improvements to Penn Station and a new tunnel west of Penn Station to replace a bore that limits train speeds to 30 mph because of safety issues stemming from sharp curves and uphill grades. (That would still leave intact an ancient tunnel in East Baltimore that inhibits train operations.)

But under its new high-speed-rail chief, Al Engel, Amtrak is thinking of constructing a two-track tunnel between southwest and east Baltimore, leaving Penn Station and the troublesome tunnels to MARC commuter and regional Amtrak trains.

Focusing on Downtown

Penn Station is 16 blocks from Charles Center. In 2008, 379,000 passengers boarded trains to and from New York. That’s less than a quarter of the 1.74 million passengers using Washington Union Station and only 70,000 more than the ridership between Wilmington and New York.

Amtrak says a station anchored to downtown would not only attract more passengers (two-thirds of whom would be diverted from airplanes and cars), but connect better to Baltimore’s growing rapid transit system. This includes the existing Metro subway to Owings Mills and light-rail line to BWI Airport and Hunt Valley, and the proposed Red Line from Security Square to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Strengthening public transit, Amtrak argues, would in turn provide the impetus necessary to refocus the region’s growth into its primary city:

“Baltimore has lost 300,000 residents (one-third of its population) since the 1950s, while the surrounding suburbs added one million. Presently, 90% of travel in Baltimore County surrounding the city is in single-occupancy automobiles, with peak period congestion rising sharply.

“Acknowledging this problem, recent transportation plans are focusing on road system preservation and transit expansion, with investments strategically coordinated with land-use policy to support sustainable, transit-oriented growth. The Baltimore area’s Regional Rail System Plan calls for over $12 billion in transit investment to connect surrounding areas to downtown Baltimore, centered on Charles Center and the nearby Inner Harbor.

“While the existing Penn Station provides some connectivity to regional and local transit services, its location is relatively removed from the city’s commercial center. In contrast, the Next-Gen High-Speed Rail concept analyzed in this study would locate a new station within convenient walking distance to the city’s major office buildings, sightseeing destinations and other amenities, with direct connections to the region’s transit network. These actions would more closely tie Baltimore to the economic engine of the Northeast Corridor, focusing growth around a revitalized and competitive urban core.”

2030 is a long time way off. The proposed tunnel and station would cost a good $5-6 billion and the overall project upwards of $117 billion, while the prospect of federal funding from the next Congress is now looking decidedly dim.

Still, if it ever came to be, a new route replacing an obsolete and hazardous alignment could bring far-reaching benefits to a struggling city and a downtown whose growth has stalled in part for want of accessible transportation.

– Brew contributor Mark Reutter moonlights as a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, specializing in transportation. His latest paper is “A Smart Way to Finance High-Speed Rail.”