Dream of a High-Speed Maglev Train between D.C. and New York Is Dead for Now

The Washington Post

11:54 JST, August 2, 2025

The Federal Railroad Administration has withdrawn support for a high-speed train project from D.C. to Baltimore, saying conflicts over federal property and protected wildlife in the path of the proposed rail line are insurmountable.

The maglev train was supposed to be the first leg of a route connecting D.C. to New York City in under an hour. It would use powerful magnetic forces that lift and propel trains above a U-shaped guideway at over 300 mph. Gov. Wes Moore (D) has been enthusiastic about the idea – earlier this year, he took an exhibition maglev in Japan that traveled 27 miles in less than 10 minutes.

Northeast Maglev, the private investors behind the project, called the cancellation “the missed opportunity of a generation to deploy the fastest and safest ground transportation system in the world.”

The proposal to bring that technology to Maryland has been stalled for years; it’s been a decade since the federal government gave the state $28 million to start work on it. The train line would have cost tens of billions of dollars to build and cost passengers going between D.C. and Baltimore about $60 a ride.

“This project did not have the means to go the distance, and I can’t in good conscience keep taxpayers on the hook for it,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. The Maryland Department of Transportation did not oppose the decision; Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld, on his last day in office, responded to the FRA that the state “understands … the significant challenges posed by the project.”

Lawmakers and residents in the path of the planned train have long argued the price was not worth the disruption. A group of state delegates from Prince George’s County put out a statement celebrating the decision, calling it “the result of relentless and unified opposition from our community and elected leaders.”

The federal government had its own concerns: The train route would cut into residential areas as well as a wildlife refuge and the world’s largest agricultural research complex, and it would touch on Secret Service and NASA property. “The project is not feasible as proposed” due to its “substantial negative effects,” the federal agency said in a notice to the state officials made public Friday.

Most high-speed rail uses older, less costly electric train technology. The handful of maglev trains in operation in Asia are modest in length because they require straight, level tunnels that are expensive and difficult to build. China and Japan are working on intercity routes.

Eric Goldwyn, a transportation researcher at New York University, said maglevs offer “faster travel speed, lower maintenance costs, higher reliability” and are “less noisy – there are no wheels or brakes to screech and wear out. But “the benefits are all mainly theoretical,” because very few have been built, and “simultaneously, fixed rail has continued to get faster and faster.”

Under President Joe Biden, billions were allocated to improve the Northeast Corridor Amtrak lines, which the FRA said might undercut the justification for a new train line. “We have existing right-of-ways. We have existing infrastructure,” agreed Del. Nicole A. Williams (D-Prince George’s). “I think as a state and as a country, it would probably be wise for us to invest more resources into what currently exists.”