Update: Robert Cruickshank reports in the California High-Speed Rail Blog: "Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that 40 states had submitted 270 high-speed rail pre-applications seeking to qualify for stimulus money. A total of $93 billion has been preliminarily requested. The Transport Politic offers a great overview of the state applications. California represents $22.3 billion of that total."
Update: See Nancy Remson's nice article in the Free Press and Boston Globe editorial urging regional cooperation
Vermont has joined with the five other New England states in a joint application for high-speed rail stimulus funds. The region has set a goal of doubling passenger rail ridership over the next two decades. New England states submitted pre-applications on Friday for the stimulus money which will be distributed through competitive grants. $10 billion is available and $13 billion of applications seeking it were received from all regions of the US.
The application covers funds for rebuilding the "Western Corridor" - the rail line linking New York City and Albany with the length of western Vermont from Bennington to Rutland to Burlington and on to the Canadian boarder. Also included is work on the route of the Vermonter which runs from New York and Hartford up the Connecticut River to White River Junction and then to Burlington and the Canadian border.
Rebuilding the Western Corridor will enable the Ethan Allen to serve Burlington and the length of Vermont. This brings a badly needed rail connection to the Western portion of the state and improves the viability of the current Ethan Allen service that now stops at Rutland. Because there is no interstate on this route, rail service will be more competitive. Besides enhancing modibility for Vermonters, the route will serve hundreds of thousands of skiiers, students and tourists.
Improvements on the "Vermonter" route will result in a significantly faster trip time, which will improve the competiveness of the train. In Massachusetts the train will move to the "knowlege corridor" via Northampton, eliminating the Palmer detour and change of direction. Enhancements in Connecticut will increase capacity (restoring double track from Springfield to New Haven) and bring electrification all the way from New York to Springfield.
The Vermont Rail Action Network supports Vermont in it's application. We aplaud this investment in our rail network, an investment that will also benifit Vermont's freight customers (which means all consumers!). We are pleased that Vermont is working together with neighboring states, as we belive in regional cooperation.
One concern we have is the apparent ommission of the North-South rail link between North Station and South Station in Boston. This is a key link for Northern New England routes to connect with routes to the rest of New England. South Station is a much better location in Boston for trains from Vermont and other Northern points.
We'll update this post shortly with more details.
Below is a map of the New England rail vision (click on the graphic to view at a larger size)
a. Moving product with less rail cars means lower transport costs for shippers
