Getting from New York City to Toronto takes two hours by plane or eight hours by car. That could change, as a New York state senator is pushing for a high-speed rail line through upstate New York that would connect the two cities, Newsweek reported.
Jeremy Cooney, who represents New York's 56th district, which includes parts of Rochester, is also the chair of the state Transportation Committee. In that capacity, he is hoping to achieve what many of his constituents have been yearning for: a safe, reliable, fast, and affordable way to travel through the state.
Successful couple of days checking out @GoBrightline and traveling via their high-speed rail system in Orlando, FL. The future of transportation is now and I'm ready to bring this transformative technology to upstate New York. pic.twitter.com/zoee440JUF
— Senator Jeremy Cooney (@SenatorCooney) November 15, 2024
"I think now that I'm the chair of the Transit Committee, I'm going to use my bully pulpit and my relationships with Gov. [Kathy] Hochul and our state Department of Transportation to really push this conversation in a more meaningful direction," he told Newsweek. "I believe that right now we don't need a study to tell us the value of high-speed rail. We did a study almost 20 years ago and if we'd implemented it we'd have high-speed rail by now."
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Cooney recently took a trip to Florida and checked out the Brightline railway — the only operational high-speed rail line in the country (though others are in the works). Needless to say, he came away impressed.
"Successful couple of days checking out @GoBrightline and traveling via their high-speed rail system in Orlando, FL. The future of transportation is now and I'm ready to bring this transformative technology to upstate New York," Cooney wrote on X.
Brightline operates at speeds of around 125 mph — not nearly the fastest high-speed rail in the world but certainly faster than Amtrak. Even at that modest speed, a trip between New York City and Toronto could take under four hours, while costing considerably less and being considerably more comfortable than a plane.
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