UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - Government at all levels - be they federal, state or even city, have all been talking about the potential of high speed rails...and what the transportation upgrade could do for the areas it passes through.

"The incremental part of this process is to make sure that we do this right and we spend the money wisely," said Joseph Boardman, a Rome native and current president and CEO of Amtrak.

Boardman, who spoke Monday at the Rome Chamber of Commerce's 97th Annual Membership Breakfast, said he believes a high speed rail's potential benefits are clear. It's only a matter of how and when we could get there.

"We're in a situation now where we're not a culture of railroad riders," Boardman said. "We need that culture to be built. And the way that gets built is to be trip-time competitive, with automobile or aviation."

That competition in trip-time comes from speed. Speed that Boardman says the Amtrak infrastructure, like the one that runs through Utica, can already achieve - able to reach speeds of up to 110 miles per hour.

"The way that happens is to improve the class of track which is now a class 4 track...to a class 6 track, and you can go as fast as 110, which is what the equipment will do anyway," Boardman said. "It's a practical way to do this."

The State of New York is competing with four other states for a piece of $8 billion in federal stimulus funds for rail service that will be available later this year.

Governor David Paterson says the plan would create immediate jobs in engineering and construction, but that it could also lead to economic improvement to all the areas the rail travels through, including stops in upstate. That's something that local officials have been lobbying for over the past several months; hoping it will bring people, money, and jobs back to the region in the form of tourists and entrepreneurs.

"It brings people to the downtown center...it's where the activity is...so in a lot of cases, you're connected just by being there, you're in the downtown center," he said.

Of course, no immediate plans are currently on the table, as Amtrak, officials, and others in the rail industry, all have to wait to see where the stimulus funds go, and see how much of a piece of the proverbial pie, they will get.