New
York Governor David A. Paterson announced approval of more than $42 million in
funding for 34 rail and port capital improvement projects in New York State.
Grants from the Renew and Rebuild New York Transportation Bond Act of 2005 and
the Governor’s Passenger and Freight Rail Assistance Program will fund these
infrastructure investments and security improvements, bringing with them
economic development and job creation and retention opportunities across the
State.
The Illinois
Commerce Commission’s Railroad Safety Section has issued a Request for Grant
Proposals for local railroad safety education and enforcement programs. The ICC
recently received a grant from the Federal Railroad Administration to continue
working with local communities and railroads in Illinois to implement railroad
safety education or enforcement programs.
The Washington State
Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and BNSF signed an agreement that
ultimately will result in more frequent and more reliable Amtrak Cascades
service between Seattle and Portland.
The Tri-City Regional
Port District will construct an additional 9,600 feet of track for a new rail
line at the port’s southern harbor near the McKinley Bridge, as part of an
overall expansion of the port, the Belleville, Ill., News-Democrat reports.
The U.S. Department of
Transportation has completed an agreement that will help fund West Virginia’s
portion of the Appalachian Regional Short Line Rail project, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. The project, receiving a $1.77-million
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, includes upgrades to crossties,
highway-rail grade crossings and bridges.
A new study of the Port
of Vancouver’s signature project – a planned 27-mile expansion of rail tracks
to speed cargo and handle more of it – says the port will have to borrow as
much as $75 million to cover a shortfall and should adopt plans to avoid cost
overruns, The Columbian reports.
When the idea of an
Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville high-speed train route was talked about publicly
two years ago, proponents contended it should be given serious consideration, according
to an editorial in the Nashville Tennessean. A $1-million feasibility study
that had recently been conducted on the Nashville-to-Chattanooga leg showed the
project to be doable, but that it would cost an estimated $5.4 billion in
public and private dollars.
Oklahoma could soon have a commuter rail transportation system to get people to and from work and ease travel, the Tulsa Beacon reports. State Rep. Charlie Joyner has been working to make that a possibility. Joyner met with representatives from Trinity Railroad Express, BNSF, Amtrak and Dallas Area Rapid Transit this week in Fort Worth to discuss the possibility of getting a commuter rail system in Oklahoma. He discussed the projected costs and pros and cons.
Work on railroad crossings
and rail lines near downtown Fort Worth, Texas, could begin as soon as spring
if the Tower 55 project is awarded federal funding, officials told the Star-Telegram. Officials from Fort Worth-based BNSF and Omaha, Neb.-based Union
Pacific appeared cautiously optimistic that the project will make the cut for
federal transit grants. A decision is expected in Washington in the fall.
As Fresno’s population
grows, so does its traffic congestion, especially in bustling areas such as
downtown, the Fresno Business Journal reports. For many, it is apparent that a
streetcar system, reminiscent of the one Fresno residents used up until the
late 1930s, will be the key to curbing the flow of traffic in the future while
bringing visitors and economic stimulation to the city’s core.
A 20-year transportation
proposal to renovate more than 500 miles of passenger rail throughout New
England is anticipated to increase speed between stations while unclogging some
of the region’s congested highways, the Brattleboro, Vt., Reformer reports. The
ambitious project, running through Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont, is
designed to improve connection times and spark economic growth throughout the
Northeast.
Sen. Dick Durbin said July
23 that giving the Union Pacific Railroad $98.3 million in federal money for
track improvements without an agreement in place to allow high-speed passenger
rail is still a good idea, The Springfield, Ill., State Journal-Register
reports.
Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), with co-sponsors
Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), introduced
the Focusing Resources, Economic Investment and Guidance to Help Transportation
Act of 2010 (FREIGHT Act), a landmark bill, leading the charge to transform
America’s transportation policy and investment by focusing on the freight
network that enables goods and commodities to move about and reach their
markets. The FREIGHT Act provides a visionary, comprehensive, systemic approach
to infrastructure investment that addresses the nation’s commerce needs while
providing a solid foundation that will also help our nation meet its energy,
environmental and safety goals. The bill also calls for the creation of a new
National Freight Infrastructure Grants initiative – a competitive, merit-based
program with broad eligibility for multimodal freight investment designed to
focus funds where they will provide the most public benefit.
The state has offered $18
million to purchase the 233 miles of rail line that Montreal Maine &
Atlantic Railway is seeking to abandon in Aroostook and Penobscot counties, the
Maine Public broadcasting Network reports.
(OneRail Coalition sent he
following letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee to support more funding
for railroads and rail transit.) As the Subcommittee prepares to mark up
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies
Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011, the OneRail Coalition urges a balanced
approach including equivalent growth in public investment for rail
infrastructure as well as highways and transit.
A state agency has given a
green signal to a $12.3-million expansion of a Norfolk Southern rail yard in
South Toledo, Ohio, a project intended to boost the region’s capacity for
handling intermodal freight and generate hundreds of transportation-sector jobs,
the Toledo Blade reports.
The Redevelopment
Commission voted to chip in $10,000 to look into alternative routes for the
South Shore Line if the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District can
get federal grant money for the study, the News-Dispatch reports. The money
will help fund a proposed $1 million study of potential realignments of the
South Shore Line. NICTD has said the agency and Michigan City would split the
$200,000 local portion of the study funding, with the federal government
providing the rest.
Close to 70 people from a
wide array of business, economic development and state and local organizations
joined forces July 7 to implore members of the federal Surface Transportation
Board to refuse to allow Maine, Montreal & Atlantic Railway to abandon 233
miles of tracks that run through Aroostook and Penobscot counties, the Bangor
Daily News reports.
The long-running commercial
rail saga in North Charleston, S.C., has taken another turn, and a resolution
could finally be in sight, the South Carolina Business Journal reports. The Business Journal has learned that the city has drafted a memorandum of
understanding with development firm Shipyard Creek Associates and railroad
operator CSX Transportation that, if approved by City Council, would eliminate
rail service to the former Navy base from the north in favor of a new southern
line.
City Council will be
presented with the memorandum during its 7 p.m. meeting July 8.
A southern line would
satisfy a 2002 memorandum of understanding penned by North Charleston and the
S.C. State Ports Authority in which the SPA agreed to "use rail access
exclusively from the south end of the property." That document has been a
source of contention among city leaders, who backed the agreement, and state
officials, who claim the memorandum didn’t pertain to them.
Under the latest proposal,
CSXT would abandon rights of way from a to-be-determined point between Clement
Avenue and Viaduct Road northward to just past the intersection at Braddock
Road. In return, North Charleston would assist CSXT in acquiring city-owned
property making up the new route. North Charleston would also pay CSXT between
$3 million and $5 million in tax-increment financing revenue for the old rights
of way.
Shipyard Creek Associates,
meanwhile, would move ahead with construction of an intermodal facility on its
Macalloy property, a project it’s been pitching for years. That Macalloy site
is located practically adjacent to the container terminal being constructed by
the State Ports Authority on the former Navy base and would serve as a rail
yard for CSXT.
In the past, officials from
the state and CSXT’s chief rival, Norfolk Southern, have claimed that such an
arrangement would be unfair. Those officials have trumpeted the need for dual
access to the port terminal and said that Norfolk Southern would be at
competitive disadvantage if it had to pay CSX for access to its tracks.
The threat of northern rail
access loomed, but North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey is now close to
vanquishing that possibility. He said that the proposed memorandum provides
dual access.
"Is it equal dual access?"
Summey said. "I don’t know if that’s available at any port."
The new plan relies heavily
on federal grant financing and the "existence of sufficient property tax
revenues to permit bonding against city TIF districts."
Summey said that a series
of federal grants over a period of several years would be needed to pay for the
project and that the parties involved will move ahead in seeking those funds if
the memorandum of understanding is approved.
