New Jersey Transit President and CEO and Northeast Corridor (NEC) Commission Co-Chair Kevin Corbett and Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William C. Vantuono discuss key issues involved with the 453-mile Washington D.C.-New York-Boston NEC, the nation’s busiest passenger rail system.

The NEC—its main line and connecting corridors to Harrisburg, Pa.; Spuyten Duyvil, N.Y.; and Springfield, Mass.—support more than 800,000 daily trips on eight regional/commuter railroads and Amtrak’s intercity services. These services, of which NJ Transit is by far the largest provider, connect eight states and the District of Columbia on infrastructure segments with four different owners. The Northeast Corridor Commission convenes the NEC’s key stakeholders in state government, commuter agencies, the federal government and Amtrak.

Given the huge SOGR (state of good repair) backlog on the NEC, what are the most pressing issues to be addressed? How does the Commission respond to critics who say that new, multi-billion-dollar capital projects like the Gateway Program should have been deferred and the money invested in SOGR projects? How can investment be balanced? The federal government has been investing billions in the NEC in recent years. Should the NEC states, and the public transportation agencies that are the primary users, have a larger cost share? Corbett addresses these questions and more in this edition of Rail Group On Air.