UPenn researchers propose new high-speed rail route

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have proposed an alternate route for a high-speed rail line that would sidestep western Connecticut and Westchester County, N.Y., in favor of a tunnel across the Long Island Sound from New Haven.

Amtrak is currently visualizing a Northeast high-speed rail line running from Hartford through Waterbury, Danbury and Westchester, on the argument that building one along Connecticut”™s coastal population centers would be too expensive.

Penn researchers say a Long Island Sound crossing would be cheaper yet. They envision a line running from Worcester, Mass., southwest past the University of Connecticut and Hartford to New Haven, emerging in Terryville, N.Y., near the campus of SUNY Stony Brook and servicing John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to New York City.

The Penn proposal would remove Rhode Island from the high-speed rail map.