Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia have joined together to form a four-state coalition to plan, develop, and implement the Southeast High Speed Rail corridor (SEHSR), in order to extend 110 mph rail passenger service from the Northeast Corridor (NEC) southward to the major cities and cultural attractions of the Southeast. The federally designated SEHSR is a rail corridor of national significance, and will extend the high speed rail benefits of the nearly completed NEC southward to Richmond, Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, Greenville-Spartanburg, Atlanta and Macon, as well as to Columbia, Savannah, and Jacksonville.

The burgeoning populations and robust economies of the Southeast states ensure the success of the SEHSR. The continued quality of life and regional mobility of its residents may well depend on the SEHSR's early implementation.

The SEHSR will form a vital rail link between the Northeast and the Southeast, performing a twenty-first century development role similar in many ways to the economic boon created by the construction in the mid-twentieth century of Interstates 95 and 85. Not only will the Southeast states benefit, but the citizens and residents of the Northeast will benefit as well by the new ease of access to and from the Southeast, for business purposes, trips to college and personal travel.

While in the near term, the states of the Southeast have individual rail programs designed to upgrade and expand intrastate rail services to connect areas with the greatest populations, the four states are united in their objective to link these current programs into a regional Southeast High Speed Rail corridor that would generate immense benefits, not only in travel convenience and reliability, but also in economic activity, for both the Northeast and Southeast regions of the nation.