Michigan track deal helps commuter rail

The Michigan Department of Transportation's looming purchase of privately-owned railroad tracks between Dearborn and Kalamazoo as part of an improved high-speed rail corridor to Chicago also will directly benefit a commuter rail project linking Detroit and Ann Arbor, Crain's Detroit Business reports.

State ownership of the
135 miles of Norfolk Southern-owned track will reduce the to-be-determined
operational costs for the Ann Arbor-Detroit service that’s a joint MDOT- Southeast
Michigan Council of Governments effort. That’s because the line won’t have to
pay a fee to use those tracks.

"It’s a different
business model now. It becomes a little bit easier dealing with some of these
issues," said Carmine Palombo, director of transportation planning for
SEMCOG.

The regional planning
agency, through which federal transit dollars flow for Metro Detroit, has long
planned a 48-mile Amtrak-operated commuter rail service of four daily trains
that could be operational by the end of 2011. In the past, negotiations between
transportation agencies and the freight line for purchase of the track had
bogged down – freight rail companies typically dislike sharing tracks with
passenger rail because of traffic delays. That’s no longer a problem once MDOT
buys the track.

"(Norfolk Southern
is) a willing seller and the state is a willing buyer," said Janet Foran
of MDOT’s office of communication.

Travel time on both the
Detroit-Ann Arbor and the Detroit/Pontiac-Chicago services also is expected to
be improved by the track sale. Amtrak’s
"Wolverine" line from Pontiac/Detroit to Chicago runs about six hours
now, and the goal is to get it under three hours.

Virginia-based Norfolk
Southern currently limits trains to 60 mph on the Dearborn-Kalamazoo stretch
because its freight trains don’t need to move as fast as passenger trains. The
faster the train, the higher the operational costs.

"Based on our
current and anticipated level of business, we could maintain those tracks at 25
mph and meet our customer’s needs. Obviously, maintaining 25 mph for passenger
service is not feasible," said Rudy Husband, Norfolk Southern’s director
of public relations for the Midwest and Northeast.

Once the track is
purchased and improvements made, trains will be able to travel up to 110 mph.

From Kalamazoo west to
the state line, the 97 miles of track are owned by Amtrak and allow for speeds
up to 79 mph. Canadian National and Conrail will own track between Dearborn and
Pontiac/Detroit, and some type of fee arrangement will be worked out to run
both the Chicago service and the local Detroit-Ann Arbor trains over that
stretch.

Bidding is expected to
begin in the spring and construction in summer 2011 on track improvements
between Dearborn and Kalamazoo to set the stage for development of a 304-mile
high-speed rail corridor to Chicago.

MDOT was awarded $150
million last week from the U.S. Department of Transportation to buy and improve
the Norfolk Southern track as part of the federal government’s national plan to
create an Amtrak-run high-speed rail system similar to those in Europe and
Asia. Another $7.9 million is paying for the West Detroit Connection Track
project that will link the high-speed line to the Amtrak station in Detroit’s
New Center area. The project includes a new bridge over Junction Avenue,
construction of 1.34 miles of new connection track, relocation of 0.86 miles of
existing track, construction of three new crossovers and signal improvements.

A $3.2 million-grant to
Michigan, Indiana and Illinois transportation agencies will pay for a corridor
investment plan for the Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac route, including environmental
impact studies that will help pave the way for increased speeds and frequencies
on the route.

The money comes from $2.4
billion awarded Thursday by the federal government for planning and
construction of high-speed and intercity passenger rail service, including
current corridors and new lines exclusively for trains traveling up to 220 mph.

The High-Speed Intercity
Passenger Rail Program is funded through $8 billion set aside last year in the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The latest funding awards are the
second round of grants.

In January, it was
announced Michigan would receive $40 million in rail-related federal stimulus
grants to build a new Amtrak station in Dearborn and to pay for renovations to
train stations in Troy and Battle Creek.