High-speed rail stimulus awards coverage and summary

President Barack Obama was in Tampa, Florida, Thursday morning to announce the winners of the high-speed intercity passenger rail funding from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). The best coverage of this topic is on The Transport Politic.

View a spreadsheet summarizing all of the high-speed rail corridors, their award amount, and investment projects. I prepared this document based on the press releases from the White House Press Office. With these press releases, I also created the construction summary below.

The Acela, a train traveling from Washington, D.C., to Boston via Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, is the country’s only high-speed rail, achieving a top speed of 150 miles per hour for only a few minutes. Photo by Jonathan Rissmeyer.

Construction Summary

Construction will occur in the following corridors*:

• Northeast
  • New track and signals on the New York – Albany – Buffalo corridor.
  • New track on the New York – Montreal corridor.
  • Track will be restored/repaired on the Boston – Portland – Brunswick corridor.
  • A station will be built in Greenfield, MA, a station restored in Northampton, MA, and 11 new miles of track in CT, on the New Haven – Springfield – Burlington – St. Albans corridor.
• Midwest
  • Two stations will be renovated in Troy and Battle Creek, MI, and a new station built in downtown Dearborn, MI, on the Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago corridor.
  • Also on the Pontiac-Detroit-Chicago corridor, a flyover, approach bridges, embankment and retaining walls will be built in Indiana.
  • Construction in Illinois on the Pontiac – Detroit – Chicago corridor includes the relocation, reconfiguration, and addition of high-speed crossovers and related signal system improvements, rail line additions at two locations, and the creation of a new passing tracks.
  • In Iowa, find four, new, remotely controlled powered crossovers on the BNSF Ottumwa subdivision.
  • Cities in Ohio will see various construction projects on the Cleveland – Columbus – Dayton – Cincinnati corridor, including new stations and upgraded track.
  • Illinois becomes the center of attention again on the Chicago – Milwaukee corridor, with various track and station improvements.
  • New stations will be built along the Milwaukee – Madison corridor, which will also see various track upgrades.
  • Illinois is the center of the Midwest rail network. The third largest award in this grant program goes to the Chicago – St. Louis corridor, for upgraded track, signals, and stations, installation of positive train control, and some CREATE projects to reduce congestion in and outside of Chicago.**
  • The St. Louis – Kansas City corridor will see upgraded bridges, crossovers, and improved grade crossings.
• Pacific Northwest
  • On the Seattle – Portland corridor, expect construction of a bypass track, grade separations, the addition of Positive Train Control, and seismic retrofits to King Station in Seattle, WA.
  • The Portland Union Station will be upgraded.
• South and Southeast
  • Between Fort Worth and Austin, new signals at grade crossings will be installed.
  • The Charlotte – Raleigh corridor will receive track upgrades.
  • Four new crossovers will be constructed in the Raleigh – Richmond corridor.
  • Between Richmond – Washington, D.C., trains will travel over 11 new miles of high-speed track
• California
  • The California High Speed Rail Authority receives the largest chunk to construct track, signals, and stations.
  • On the Pacific Surfliner Corridor (San Luis Obispo – Los Angeles – San Diego), new track and crossovers will be constructed.

View on Google Docs or download an Excel file.

*This construction summary is about as complete as the press releases from the White House. I reviewed each press release and copied the information that indicated where construction or upgrades of new or existing project components would actually occur. I excluded planning, environmental impact statements, engineering, and design components of the above projects. I compiled the most important information from the White House press releases into a spreadsheet.

**UPDATED: For more CREATE and Englewood Flyover information, which was funded at $133 million, see page 2 of the Federal Railroad Administration’s summary handout (PDF) and this discussion on Railroad.net.