The only funded high-speed rail project in Pennsylvania is between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. However, construction on the cutoff at the New Jersey end of the cutoff began in late 2011. This route would also require connection of the Binghamton line to the Empire Corridor to avoid a dead end, most likely through the existing New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's northernmost branches to either Syracuse or Utica; the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad line that connected the cutoff to Buffalo via a route through the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes is mostly abandoned. In any of these cases, the terrain is not favorable to high-speed rail service and would have to switch to conventional rail in this section. Gateway Project The Gateway Project is a proposal to build a high-speed rail right-of-way and to alleviate the bottleneck along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey, and New York Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan. The project would create routing alternatives and add 25 train scheduling slots to the current system used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit by constructing another Hudson River crossing. Originally planned by Amtrak to come on line in 2030, Gateway was announced soon after cancellation of NJT's Access to the Region's Core (ARC) project in 2010. It remains unclear how engineering work, design, and real estate acquisition for ARC will be used for Gateway. In November 2011 U.S. Congress allotted $15 million for initial studies. Other out-of-state connections New high-speed routes through from Albany to Boston and Buffalo to Kansas City and/or Minneapolis through Cleveland are also proposed, most likely along the routes of current Amtrak services. Through service from Washington, D.C. to upstate New York via the Northeast Corridor is also proposed. These services would require heavy cooperation with other states and the United States federal government. Many civic and business leaders in New England have recently shown interest in better service to New York City and Boston. References External links High Speed Rail Empire Corridor - New York State Department of Transportation Empire Corridor - Federal Railroad Administration Empire State Passengers Association High-speed railway lines in the United States Passenger rail transportation in New York (state)