The FY2010 HSIPR grants were made public today with letters sent to Congress, although the official US DOT press release with the full details won't be posted until later this week. Most of the funds went to the two true HSR projects with $902 million for California with $715 million for the Merced to Bakerfield segment and $800 million to Florida.
But there were grants that will expand and improve existing Amtrak service:
Chicago-Iowa City corridor got pretty much fully funded at $230 million - http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20101025/NEWS01/101025016/1079.
New Haven - Springfield corridor partially funded at $121 million with $260 million of CT bond funds already allocated:
http://www.courant.com/news/breaking/hc-ct-federal-rail-funds-1025,0,404894.story
Should be enough to get much of the route and bridges restored and upgraded.
Chicago-Detroit got $150.9 million of their $308 million application granted for acquiring and upgrading the NS line from Kalamazoo to Dearborn: http://www.detnews.com/article/20101025/METRO05/10250393/Michigan-awarded-$150M-for-high-speed-rail-route.
Virginia got $45 million for Preliminary Engineering and NEPA to get to a Tier II EIS for the DC to Richmond corridor. This would match the Tier II EIS almost completed for the Richmond to Petersburg to Raleigh part of the SE HSR corridor. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/oct/25/railgat25-ar-585455/. With this much money, hope they would look at a more aggressive approach that just adding a 3rd track to the RF&P line. What should be looked at is a 2 track line dedicated for passenger rail, separate from the 2 track freight corridor with complete grade separation (except for Ashland if they stick with that route), some ROW realignment, and eventual electrification.
Oregon got $9 million for design studies for upgrades to the Cascades corridor and renovating the Portland station.
New York State got some funds, but have not seen a complete summary yet. Some of the CA awards were for PE for current corridor projects, looks to be mostly the Surfliner route. There are presumably a number of smaller project and planning grants that will be announced or have been covered in local papers.
Among the other larger applications, looks like the $250 million application for the FEC corridor in Florida did not funded this year. But still a lot of good news for Amtrak in these grants.
But there were grants that will expand and improve existing Amtrak service:
Chicago-Iowa City corridor got pretty much fully funded at $230 million - http://www.press-citizen.com/article/20101025/NEWS01/101025016/1079.
New Haven - Springfield corridor partially funded at $121 million with $260 million of CT bond funds already allocated:
http://www.courant.com/news/breaking/hc-ct-federal-rail-funds-1025,0,404894.story
Should be enough to get much of the route and bridges restored and upgraded.
Chicago-Detroit got $150.9 million of their $308 million application granted for acquiring and upgrading the NS line from Kalamazoo to Dearborn: http://www.detnews.com/article/20101025/METRO05/10250393/Michigan-awarded-$150M-for-high-speed-rail-route.
Virginia got $45 million for Preliminary Engineering and NEPA to get to a Tier II EIS for the DC to Richmond corridor. This would match the Tier II EIS almost completed for the Richmond to Petersburg to Raleigh part of the SE HSR corridor. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2010/oct/25/railgat25-ar-585455/. With this much money, hope they would look at a more aggressive approach that just adding a 3rd track to the RF&P line. What should be looked at is a 2 track line dedicated for passenger rail, separate from the 2 track freight corridor with complete grade separation (except for Ashland if they stick with that route), some ROW realignment, and eventual electrification.
Oregon got $9 million for design studies for upgrades to the Cascades corridor and renovating the Portland station.
New York State got some funds, but have not seen a complete summary yet. Some of the CA awards were for PE for current corridor projects, looks to be mostly the Surfliner route. There are presumably a number of smaller project and planning grants that will be announced or have been covered in local papers.
Among the other larger applications, looks like the $250 million application for the FEC corridor in Florida did not funded this year. But still a lot of good news for Amtrak in these grants.
Last edited by a moderator: