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Views & News
On Wednesday, January 27, President Obama and key members of his administration announced the particulars of federal funding grants for the construction or improvement of selected U.S. passenger rail services. The funding was called for by last year’s American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and totals approximately $8 billion.
A total of 79 projects will be funded in a total of 31 states. Regionally, this totals as follows: In the Northeast, $485 million for 22 projects; in the Southeast, $1.876 million for 11 projects; in the Midwest, $2.617 million for 24 projects; and in the West, $2.943 million for 22 projects. The three states gaining the largest funding were California, $2.25 billion for its planned high-speed rail network and $94 million for conventional passenger rail; Florida, $1.25 billion for the first phase of its planned Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail line; and Illinois, $1.25 billion to effect speeds of up to 110mph on the existing line between Chicago and St. Louis, MO.
Of particular note related to short line and regional railroads is $50.5 million to Vermont for track and structural improvements on the line between St. Albans, VT and the Vermont-Massachusetts line. That line is traveled by Amtrak’s daily "Vermonter" train operating over the tracks of RailAmerica’s New England Central Railroad. News reports indicated that these and associated improvements could speed the train by as much as an hour as it travels through Vermont and Massachusetts.
A map of funded projects and links to more detailed information is available by linking to the website of the National Association of Railroad Passengers at http://www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/hotline/more/hotline_639/.