Later this week, Amtrak will begin test runs of truly high-speed trains along its Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston, the train service announced yesterday.

Amtrak is set to propose a $7 billion plan to overhaul and expand Union Station with the goal of tripling its passenger capacity and dedicating new tracks to high-speed service.

Back in college, they always taught us journalism people to make sure we mention the most important fact of a story in the first line. You know, inverted pyramid and all that. So, here goes: the thing that I am about to talk about would cost $117 billion and would not be complete until 2040. That said: holy moley, is this PDF some sweet transit porn, or what?

Don’t get too excited just yet, but this story from the Washington Times is bound to make those of you who travel between D.C. and New York City on a regular basis salivate. The federal government plans to announce it is seeking contractors to build a new $30 billion to $40 billion high-speed rail line between Washington and New York that would be used exclusively by passenger trains. Now, Congress still has to vote to…