BUILDING THE POLITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL IN NORTH-AMERICA

In this paper we examine the institutional and political obstacles tha t have held back development of high speed rail (HSR) policies and pro jects in North America, and the prospects for overcoming them. We demo nstrate how national level institutions in both the U.S. and Canada co uld sustain only weak and amorphous HSR policy networks. At the sub-na tional level, we identify three funding formulas for HSR that failed t o win broad enough political support to get projects off the drawing b oard. We then asses the political risks and incentives that political leadership must consider in building a broader HSR coalition, and high light the importance of crafting a distributive benefits formula to en sure that a broad range of new stakeholders will ''buy into'' HSR poli cy.