ARRA Projects & Funding

The WSDOT has published its short list of rail projects that it would like to see funded with ARRA money:

• $10 mn to finish the Vancouver WA track reconfiguration project,
• $2.2 mn to straighten tracks near Everett WA and relieve mainline congestion,
• $600,000 to build the station platform for a new Cascades stop in Stanwood WA (between Everett and Mt. Vernon),
• $60 mn to finish the Pt. Defiance bypass project,
• $108.5 mn to purchase 4 new trainsets and lengthen the 5 existing trainsets.

If granted and built, those projects would clear up the most congested portions of the Cascades corridor in WA and allow for another daily roundtrip SEA<>PDX. Run times would also be faster with new routing and better reliability. The new trainsets would be FRA crash-compliant and might permit higher speed running.

What's being put forward for passenger rail projects in your state?

I'd like to see what other state DOTs are proposing for ARRA funding. If you've seen information about what's officially being proposed in your state or region, please add it to this list. There's another thread for general speculation or dreaming about possible ARRA rail projects, please keep this thread focused on the projects that are actually moving forward through the bureaucracy with state or regional sponsorship. My apologies for sounding like Sister Aloysius

IMHO I think WA state should extend the Sounder to downtown Olympia and increase the schedule.

Interesting; WSDOT is admirably realistic (or fatalistic) about their prospects for funding, which could help or hurt depending on whether the Secretary of Transportation decides to favor incremental improvements or focused large-scale investments. Here is a comparable list from the North Carolina DOT, which is significantly more ambitious. Not all of these are passenger rail projects, but the majority would in theory be eligible for either HSR, intercity passenger rail, or congestion grants (the original is posted here (pdf).
Note particularly the last project....

CRISP-Charlotte Rail Improvement and Safety Project. Grade separate NS from CSXT and provide crossing for CATS O-Line project, close 9 at-grade crossings, enhance freight, intermodal, commuter and intercity
passenger access.
$80,000,000

Sugar Creek Road Grade Separation (Charlotte)
$34,000,000

Charlotte Station leaving signal
$1,000,000

Double-track 26.3 miles of NCRR between HPT and CLT
$65,000,000

Klumac Road Grade Separation (Salisbury)
$6,500,000

Construct 10,000 ft siding on new alignment (Haw River)
$7,000,000

Rail re-alignment to permit new grade separation and future rail siding (Durham)
$9,000,000

Hardship ROW acquisition (Wake Forest)
$3,250,000

Statewide Locomotive mid-life rebuild and EPA emissions upgrade
$2,500,000

Construct 3 universal crossovers on CSXT double track
$7,500,000

Acquire ROW for future Charlotte Gateway Station
$7,500,000

Refurbish four (4) passenger rail cars
$7,500,000

Statewide Capitalized maintenance
$3,000,000

Streamline freight operations (Greenville)
$2,000,000

Upgrade Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad
$2,000,000

Provide capital assistance to short-line railroads
$10,000,000

Short lines Upgrade crossing surfaces
$5,000,000

Upgrade Capital Yard Rail Facility to accommodate service expansions
and house additional employees
$3,500,000

Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor ROW Acquisiton
$65,000,000

Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor Field Survey and Final Engineering
$12,000,000

NCRR Double-track Greensboro to Goldsboro
$647,800,000

mkellerm wrote:
Charlotte Station leaving signal
$1,000,000



Construct 10,000 ft siding on new alignment (Haw River)
$7,000,000


Refurbish four (4) passenger rail cars
$7,500,000

These just jump out at you and say WOW, a million doesn't get you what it used to. 7 Million for a siding? 1 Million for 1 signal? 7.5 for 4 cars?(would this be for more heritage coaches, I know that the piedmount uses upgraded heritage coaches right now)

Vincent wrote:What's being put forward for passenger rail projects in your state?

Oregon:

$0.00

Source: http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/economic_stimulus.shtml

(Well, TriMet wants a bunch of money for streetcar and light rail projects, does that count?)

Vincent wrote:$108.5 mn to purchase 4 new trainsets and lengthen the 5 existing trainsets.

What would the four new trainsets be for?

Right now, if WSDOT did the other improvements between Seattle and Portland, and service was eliminated south of Portland (or replaced with other equipment, or replaced with hourly/frequent bus service) the existing Talgo fleet could operate six trains per day in each direction, roughly every two hours.

Granted, two new trainsets could operate Seattle-VAC...I'm assuming the other two trainsets would be spares? Used Seattle-Spokane? Seattle-Tri Cities (via Yakima)? Portland-Spokane (via Tri-Cities)?

I would imagine that the other two trainsets could be used in the near term for service between Eugene and Portland. After all, since the stimulus grant programs don't require a state match, there is no reason for WSDOT not to request the money to buy the extra trainsets now and loan their use to ODOT until there is enough track capacity to increase to service between Seattle and Portland. There is also a plan to rearrange the existing trainsets to increase capacity, such that 4 + 5 might equal 8.

Also, you shouldn't be so hard on ODOT. Their project listings only include projects funded out of formula allocations, rather than those from competitive grant programs. It looks like Oregon will be entering the sweepstakes, although their specific projects are not identified:

Will Oregon be able to take advantage of the funding for passenger rail?

The ARRA contains $9.3 billion for passenger rail, including $8 billion for high-speed passenger rail
corridors. ODOT partners with the Washington State DOT and Amtrak to operate the Cascades
Amtrak service on the Northwest high-speed rail corridor. This corridor runs from Eugene through
Portland and Seattle on to Vancouver, British Columbia and is one of the nation’s top passenger rail
corridors in terms of ridership. ODOT would seek a federal investment from the stimulus program to
improve the speed and reliability of passenger rail service on the corridor and build capacity to allow
for the eventual addition of a third daily roundtrip train between Eugene and Portland.

My guess is that WSDOT is looking at the new trainsets as a 2+2 order. With 7 total sets available, the 6th would add an additional daily SEA<>PDX/EUG and the 7th would be spare or undergoing routine maintenance. The 8th and 9th sets would come on-line after the Kelso to Longview upgrades are finished. Also, I don't know if the proposed train order includes locomotives or not.

The NC roster looks like it's got some worthwhile projects and maybe one big wish. How many of the NC projects will be ready for construction by this summer? The WA track projects are ready today, all they need is "The Golden Shovel". Would NC be interested in piggy-backing on the WA order for tilt-tech HSR trainsets? Some shiny new Talgos would look good slinking through those Carolina hills.

how would I find Pennsylvania's?

Wouldn't new Talgos be a good idea for a couple of other lines too:

-North Carolina
-Chicago-Detroit
-Maybe Chicago-Minneapolis too

A bigger order would lower the costs for everybody.

hi55us wrote:

mkellerm wrote:Construct 10,000 ft siding on new alignment (Haw River)
$7,000,000

... 7 Million for a siding? ....

The key here is "new alignment". This project will also straighten several curves and involves right-of-way acquisition. Curvature makes this 50mph territory right now. The realignment will make it good for at least 79mph (with a conservative 3" real superelevation, 3" unbalance.) There is another future project east of this that will straighen another 4 miles of track (twice as long so figure about $14 million) which, when linked up to abutting segments that are already straight, results in 12 contiguous miles free of speed restrictions.

Given that this is a part of the SE HSR corridor, and given NEC-like paramaters (still conservative by world standards) such as 5" SE and 5" unbalance, this would then be 12 contiguous miles good for 110 mph. That could mean about 5 minutes time savings over the current configuration. For $21 million, that's not too bad. This is some relatively low hanging fruit. If you could find 12 projects like this, that would mean an hour of savings for $250 million.

RE talgos, I'm not sure I want NC to get them. They're not high-platform capable, meaning they couldn't continue north of WAS. For that reason, I'd like to see SEHSR built with all high platforms.

Vincent wrote:The NC roster looks like it's got some worthwhile projects and maybe one big wish. How many of the NC projects will be ready for construction by this summer?

There are folks on the board who know much more about the NC rail program than I do, but based on their website, I'd say that the following are shovel-ready (or wrench-ready or pencil-ready, as the case may be):


Charlotte Station leaving signal
(shouldn't be a big deal)

Double-track 26.3 miles of NCRR between HPT and CLT
(in preliminary engineering, originally scheduled for completion in 2012)

Construct 10,000 ft siding on new alignment (Haw River)
(in final design, originally scheduled for completion in 2012)

Rail re-alignment to permit new grade separation and future rail siding (Durham)
(grade separation is in environmental, scheduled for 2012)

Statewide Locomotive mid-life rebuild and EPA emissions upgrade
(would be contracted out)

Acquire ROW for future Charlotte Gateway Station
(real estate transaction)

Refurbish four (4) passenger rail cars
(would be contracted out)

Statewide Capitalized maintenance
(would be contracted to NS, presumably)

Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor ROW Acquisiton
(real estate transaction, presumably to purchase some or all of the S-line between Raleigh and Petersburg)

Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor Field Survey and Final Engineering
(would be contracted to engineering firm(s))

TDOT put together a 1.6 Bil proposal. Unfortunately, it appears the state only will get .5 in transportation funds. It appears most of it may go to replace highway bridges or widen them. There were some rail bridge & crossing projects. Perhaps a few dollars to take out a curve or 2. Nothing for passenger rail. We may be lucky to get a new bus for the MTA fleet.

mkellerm wrote:Interesting; WSDOT is admirably realistic (or fatalistic) about their prospects for funding, which could help or hurt depending on whether the Secretary of Transportation decides to favor incremental improvements or focused large-scale investments. Here is a comparable list from the North Carolina DOT, which is significantly more ambitious.

Interestingly, the NC list is almost entirely stuff they've been planning as part of SE High Speed Rail, with some stuff from other plans.

mkellerm wrote:

Vincent wrote:The NC roster looks like it's got some worthwhile projects and maybe one big wish. How many of the NC projects will be ready for construction by this summer?

There are folks on the board who know much more about the NC rail program than I do, but based on their website, I'd say that the following are shovel-ready (or wrench-ready or pencil-ready, as the case may be):

Actually, everything on their entire list has gone through at least preliminary design, including the six-hundred-million-dollar double-tracking. They've already figured out where they want to align the second track on the entire route (and have been, bit by bit, moving the "first" track to make way for it, rebuilding bridges double-wide, etc.)