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RIDOT purchases land for station, parking garage






Rhode Island’s planned
extension of commuter rail service from Boston and Providence to Warwick and
North Kingstown is on track.

The Rhode Island Department
of Transportation (RIDOT), with approval from the State Properties Committee,
completed the purchase of property needed for the Wickford Junction train
station and parking garage. The purchase price for the land and easements
located on Route 102 in North Kingstown, near its intersection with Route 4, was
$3.2 million, of which 80 percent came from federal funds.

The Wickford project, along
with the Warwick Intermodal Facility currently under construction, will provide
the infrastructure necessary to support the initial start-up phase of the South
County Commuter Rail Service. This service will extend existing Massachusetts
Bay Transit Authority trains through Providence an additional 20 miles with
stops at T.F. Green Airport and Wickford Junction. The new service is intended
to provide an alternative mode of travel to the already congested I-95 and
Route 4 corridor, which is the State’s fastest growing region, and provide
access to major employment, retail and recreational centers in Providence and
Boston. MBTA is expected to add commuter rail stops at T.F. Green Airport in
2010 and at Wickford Junction in 2011.

Once built, Wickford
Junction Station, with an estimated construction cost of $30 million, will
feature a train station and platform along with a 1,100-space parking garage.
It is expected that once construction begins it will take approximately 16
months to build the station and garage. Commuter rail service would start
shortly after that. Daily ridership is projected to be approximately 1,750
passengers, with eight weekday round trips planned.

Rail stimulus funds to bypass Northeast






The railroad tracks from
Boston to Washington – the busiest rail artery in the nation, and one that also
carries America’s only high-speed train, the Acela – have been virtually shut
out of $8 billion worth of federal stimulus money set aside for high-speed rail
projects because of a strict environmental review required by the Obama
administration, according to the Boston Globe. Because such a review would take
years, states along the Northeast rail corridor are not able to pursue stimulus
money for a variety of crucial upgrades.

Groundbreaking set for $10.2-million Mass. commuter rail project






PRESS RELEASE
 

As part of the
Patrick-Murray Administration’s Massachusetts Recovery Plan, Governor Deval
Patrick joined Congressman John Olver and local elected officials in Leominster,
Mass., to announce the groundbreaking of the first rail improvement project in
Massachusetts supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

 

CSXT, Massachusetts submit rail pact for review

The state of Massachusetts submitted a comprehensive
multiyear rail transportation agreement with CSX Transportation for federal
review with the Surface Transportation Board.

CSXT has also reached an initial agreement with the
Massachusetts Coastal Railroad to take over freight rail activities on the
former CSXT South Coast Lines, which is being purchased by the state. The
agreement is a step is an important process toward bringing rail service to the
South Coast and will enhance local freight rail service to that region.

The deal with CSXT was announced in September and could mean
more passenger trains on the Worcester line. In the deal, CSXT agreed to help
defray the MBTA’s liability insurance cost and pay the deductible on liability
insurance if a collision occurs involving a freight train and CSXT is found at
fault because of willful misconduct.

Massachusetts finalizes agreement with CSX Transportation






Mass. Lieutenant Governor
Timothy Murray said that the Commonwealth’s comprehensive multi-year rail
transportation agreement with CSX Transportation, the national freight carrier
serving Massachusetts, has been finalized. Lieutenant Governor Murray, who has
been working on this agreement since he was Mayor of Worcester, led the
negotiations for this agreement on behalf of the administration with critical
support from the Governor, Senator John Kerry and Congressman Jim McGovern. Many
of the agreement’s major elements were resolved last year; however, the long-standing
debate concerning liability remained unresolved.

 

Visiting motor cars mark Fairmont’s 100th anniversary

More than 40 railroad motor cars from all over the United States will be stopping in Albert Lea, Minn., during part of a 100th anniversary celebration of Fairmont Railway Motors Inc., now Harsco Track Technologies, the Albert Lea Tribune reports.

The celebration will include a display of about 45 North American Rail Car Operators Association motorcars during an open house at the Harsco facility in Fairmont. The 45 restored cars were originally built at the Fairmont plant and shipped to railroads around the United States and Canada.