High-Speed Passenger Rail

Sidley is a leading adviser to projects that are shaping the future of high-speed passenger rail transport in the United States. Our lawyers serve as counsel to the developers of several major high-speed rail projects. Working together across practice areas, we offer a “one-stop-shop” approach that combines the firm’s strengths in rail transportation, financing, and environmental law, bringing to bear our extensive understanding of, and experience with, regulatory and environmental obstacles faced by such projects, including corridor development and both public and private financing solutions. Our lawyers have supported legislative and regulatory reforms designed to promote private investment in the high-speed rail sector, including the American High-Speed Rail Act, which proposes to provide more than US$200 billion in federal support for the United States’ high-speed rail infrastructure.

Band 1 National Ranking in Transportation: Rail
Chambers USA 2021

Our multidisciplinary approach seamlessly handles every aspect of complex rail infrastructure transactions. Harnessing the knowledge of lawyers across Sidley’s many practice areas, including Transportation, M&A, Tax, Environmental, and Supreme Court and Appellate, we work closely with our clients to help them achieve their rail-focused business objectives.

In connection with our high-speed rail capabilities, we have decades of experience advising parties in structuring and negotiating mergers and acquisitions, short-line sales, joint facilities transactions, and corridor development projects. Sidley regularly advises railroads on their environmental obligations and represents railroads in proceedings seeking environmental approval and in federal court. We represent rail clients in U.S. federal, state, and appellate courts, and in administrative proceedings before the Surface Transportation Board (STB) and Department of Transportation (DOT).

Our rail-focused work has earned our team recognition in numerous industry publications, including the 2020 edition of Chambers USA, which describes Sidley’s Transportation practice as “esteemed” and acknowledges our lawyers for their “representation of a significant tranche of railroad industry clients across the USA.”

Representative Matters

• Texas — Texas Central Partners, in connection with the development of a proposed high-speed passenger rail line between Dallas and Houston, Texas (2016–present)
• Florida — Brightline (formerly All Aboard Florida), in connection with the development of a proposed high-speed passenger rail line between Miami and Orlando, Florida (2010–present)
• Northeast Corridor — Baltimore-Washington Railroad, in connection with the development of a proposed high-speed passenger rail line between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland (2020–present)
• California to Nevada — The acquisition of DesertXpress Enterprises and the development of a proposed high-speed passenger rail line between Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada (2018–present)