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.