FRA gives $46 million in PTC grants in 10 states
Written by Staff and newswire reportEleven projects to implement positive train control (PTC) systems will split more than $46 million in grants from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The winning PTC projects include a wide variety of rail projects, including freight (Alaska Railroad), intercity (Amtrak in Colorado, NCDOT in North Carolina)) commuter (Illinois’ Metra, California’s Caltrain and Metrolink, New Jersey Transit, and Massachusetts’ MBTA). The largest single grant is for up to $9,157,600 to install I-ETMS PTC wayside technology on approximately 179 miles between Dodge City, Kan., and Las Animas, Colo. on the BNSF Railway, for use by the Amtrak Southwest Chief.
News of some of the grants, notably more than $2 million to buy and install onboard I-ETMS PTC equipment on 24 new locomotives on the Chicago-area Metra, were announced by members of Congress earlier in the week. Additional details on the PTC grants can be found on the FRA website.
The grants are the second wave of funds released by FRA in fiscal year 2018 from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program. Back in August, FRA announced $203.7 million in grant awards for PTC implementation to 28 projects in 15 states.
The grants were announced just hours before the FRA was closed as part of the partial shutdown of the federal government.