Assessing the recent reformulation of United States passenger rail policy

This article reviews the prospects for major change in United States transportation policy based on initial experience with the Obama administration’s launch of a high-speed intercity passenger train program. Public policy theory suggests that such paradigmatic change requires a mix of both powering through new goals and puzzling over how to attain them. Pursuit of the Obama administration’s high-speed rail policy agenda to date suggests that when the power to initiate policy goals is much greater than the capacity to achieve them, then political conflict over implementation will become a constraint on policy paradigm shift.

► Debate over Amtrak has constrained developing high speed rail for over 40 years. ► Recent reformulation of high-speed rail policy reveals a partial paradigm shift. ► Changing the policy agenda has outpaced the capacity to implement change. ► Closing the capacity gap will be essential to completing the paradigm shift. ► There has been intensified political conflict over high-speed rail implementation.