The Obama Administration said
$100 million in Economic Recovery Act funding will go to 43 transit agencies
that are pursuing cutting-edge environmental technologies to help reduce global
warming, lessen America’s dependence on oil and create green jobs.
The Vermont Agency of
Transportation and the New England Central Railroad are seeking $52 million in
federal funds to boost the speed of Amtrak’s Vermonter intercity passenger
service and increase NECR’s capacity for heavier freight carloads. If awarded
the grant, NECR will contribute 10 percent of project costs.Plans for the two-year
project include upgrades to heavier continuously welded rail, bridge work, new
tie installation and ballast work along 191 track miles. The project would be
funded through the Federal Railroad Administration’s High-Speed Intercity
Passenger Rail program, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The leader of the effort to
build the proposed DesertXpress high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern
California said his company has launched a worldwide search for vendors and
suppliers so that construction on the $4 billion project could begin by the end
of March, the Las Vegas Sun reports.
ConnectUs, Inc., said
that it and its coalition of business, labor and environmental groups had sent
letters of support and endorsement to U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood in
support of Florida’s application seeking $30 million for the Preliminary
Engineering and NEPA Environmental studies for the Orlando-Miami corridor.
Norfolk Southern will
construct a new intermodal terminal in Greencastle, Pa., to serve the
Mid-Atlantic region, as part of the railroad’s multi-state Crescent Corridor
initiative to establish a high-speed intermodal freight rail route between the
Gulf Coast and the Northeast. The $95-million facility, at which freight moving
in containers and trailers will be transferred between train and truck, will
occupy a 200-acre site adjacent to the planned Antrim Commons Business Park and
is expected to open in late 2011.
Stimulus funding that the
Tomah, Wis., Amtrak Station is slated to receive will be used to construct a
handicap boarding ramp, the Tomah Journal reports.
