Moonshots to Nowhere? The Metroliner and Failed High-Speed Rail in the United States, 1962–1977

Abstract

In September 1962, President John F. Kennedy challenged Americans to send and return astronauts to the Moon by the close of the decade. So-called “moon shots” like the Apollo Program of the 1960s became emblematic of a new paradigm in federally-funded research and development: large in scale, ambitious in scope, technologically challenging, and most importantly public facing. The success of the moon landings, in turn, inspired federal policymakers to seek similarly ambitious moon shots in other domains including communications, energy, housing, and transportation. The moonshot paradigm, however, proved to be a poor fit when applied in civilian settings. Drawing upon original archival research, this paper details government-led efforts to implement high-speed passenger rail along the Northeast Corridor. The moonshot paradigm saddled this program in no-win scenarios, encouraging implementing agencies to overstate program benefits, underestimate their costs, and ignore technological complexity and risk.