Apologies for the absence of posts the past few weeks; we've been preparing and producing our first-ever conference event, Connecting Communities: A Passenger Rail Symposium, which was held in Long Beach on May 24th and 25th. Rather than offering my biased perspective, I invite you to check out the review by Drew Reed of L.A. Streetsblog of Day One and Day Two.
Later last week, Vice President Biden announced the first series of high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants to states under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) [For our full analysis of the ARRA high-speed and intercity rail projects, visit here]. Nearly $80 million was distributed to 5 states as the first phase of their projects. More than $66 million of that was directed to Florida to begin project management and preliminary engineering on the state's Tampa-to-Orlando high-speed line. With a planned opening date in 2014, Florida needs to move quickly in order to have significant work underway by 2012. Additionally, the infrastructure, vehicle technology, final station locations and service operator have all yet to be determined, making the need for the first stage of the project's $1.25 billion budget all the more urgent.
Meanwhile, although California's high-speed rail network will ultimately be larger and move more passenger's than Florida's, it will likely be hampered by a longer timeframe to implement the project. As a result, California's initial ARRA allocation came in the form of $6.2 million to improve service on existing, conventional Capitol Corridor route between the Bay Area and Sacramento. The infrastructure work will produce fewer delays and faster trains for the service, which is already one of the busiest in the nation. (For more information on California's existing conventional rail options, view our article "California's Railroad" in the 11th Edition of RAIL.
One of the most exciting projects selected for ARRA investment is the creation of new service between Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin. Passenger service has not been offered on the corridor between the state's two largest cities since the 1970s, and Wisconsin has already purchased a fleet of new trainsets from Talgo to operate the service. Talgo will manufacture the trainsets – and two others for Oregon – in Wisconsin. Under the first phase of ARRA grants, Wisconsin will receive $5.7 million to move forward with the project – which will operate trains at up to 110 mph – anticipated to open in 2013.
One of the surprises of the original ARRA announcement was the relatively small award to New York State for its Empire Corridor project between New York City, Albany, Buffalo and Niagara Falls. A total of $144 million was designated for New York to add sections of track between Albany and Schenectady and Rochester and Batavia to reduce delays and improve trip times, as well as other smaller projects elsewhere along the route. The state received $1 million in this initial disbursement to expand its planning work on the effort, and continue negotiations with CSX, which owns the former New York Central Water Level Route paralleling the Erie Canal and at one time included four track infrastructure. (For more information on New York's Empire Corridor, read "A Tale of Two Corridors" in our 3rd Edition of RAIL)
Finally, New Mexico received a $100,000 grant to conduct the first-ever state rail plan, which will investigate how high-speed and intercity passenger rail could be implemented in New Mexico. The state already operates its frequent Rail Runner Express between Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Belen, and would look to expand on that foundation with the new study.
Stay tuned to RAIL Magazine and The Potomac Express for further details and updates on high-speed and intercity rail projects across the country.
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