L’« Obamarail » : l’émergence d’une nouvelle géographie ferroviaire aux États-Unis ?

Today, there are no high-speed lines in the United States according to the International Union of Railways’ standards, but one higher-speed rail example in the Northeast corridor. Several resounding failures occurred in succession in the 1980s and 1990s in Texas, in Florida and in Ohio. The “Obamarail” initiative in 2009 and 2010 gave a new momentum with additional funding dedicated to this new means of transport associated with concrete state commitments, with, however, variable levels of commitment. At the end of President Obama’s second term, the efficiency of these initiatives as well as the reality of high-speed rail in the US are worth studying. In 2016, the only project under construction lies in California. Other states started modernizing the existing networks as well as improving Amtrak services, although private projects are under development in parallel. Most projects at hand are not high-speed rail strictly speaking. This article suggests reviewing the Obama administration’s initiative in favor of high-speed rail from 2009 and examining the political and territorial difficulties at various institutional levels. This analysis will enable us to develop a reflection on the high-speed rail model in the US as well as on the political and territorial lessons to be learned of this federal initiative. corridor, high speed rail, Obama, railroads, United State