[V]ermont’s congressional delegation is asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve a $12 million grant that would help establish passenger train service between Rutland and Burlington.
U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Peter Welch have reiterated their support for federal money to build a long-sought-after passenger train route that transportation officials hope would cut the travel time between Rutland and Burlington and take traffic off the roads.
“The project will benefit many businesses and promote economic opportunities all along the route, which is especially important because Western Vermont lacks an interstate opportunity,” the delegation wrote in a May 22 letter. “Without access to modern transportation infrastructure, businesses in the region are finding it increasingly difficult to compete in the global economy.
The delegation also stressed that the project would replace cars and trucks on congested Route 7 and ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant process is highly competitive, according to Chris Cole, the deputy secretary of the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
The state has received about $9 million during a previous TIGER grant period. The $12 million grant would help repair the tracks between Rutland and Burlington. In the past decade, Vermont has spent $65 million upgrading the 65-mile line. There has not been passenger rail between Rutland and Burlington since 1953.
Cole is confident that Vermont has a better application this year, and he says VTrans could have the Rutland-Burlington passenger line complete within a few years if the state is awarded the money. The line would extend Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express, which starts in New York City and ends in Rutland, to continue to Burlington.
With the state’s priorities for overhauling its rail infrastructure hinging on the money, VTrans has unveiled a draft version of a 2015 state rail plan — the first such plan in nearly 10 years. The plan puts more political power behind statewide rail service goals, and commits the state to funding railroad improvement with or without federal dollars.
The plan places three projects on high priority: passenger service from Rutland to Burlington, passenger service from St. Albans to Montreal and a study to figure out how to run a train from New York to Bennington, then back up the Rutland line. The 167-page draft plan also details the status of the crumbling rail infrastructure.
“We want [rail] to be a tool for economic development,” Cole said. “It’s an efficient, environmental way to transport heavy, bulky goods, like wood, fuel. It’s more environmentally friendly than trucks, and it does less damage than trucks.”
But revamping the state’s railway infrastructure is an uphill battle, according to the draft plan. All of Vermont’s state-owned rail lines can carry up to 263,000 pounds — about 10 percent less than the weight limit used nationally since the 1990s. The two railways in Vermont with modern weight-bearing limits are privately owned, VTrans says.
Much of the state’s rail infrastructure is bolted together every 39 feet, and the state needs to replace it with quarter-mile-long welded rail pieces to carry more weight and allow trains to travel faster than cars and trucks.
Expanding service from Rutland to Burlington and from St. Albans to Montreal would require $1 million and $2 million in additional subsidies, respectively, according to VTrans. All those factors put the total cost for completing passenger and freight goals around the state at more than $650 million over the next 20 years, the plan says.
“They are beyond Vermont’s means to pay for it by itself,” Cole said of the rail projects. “We would need a partner, and typically we would partner with the federal government to receive national funding for transportation. Without that partner, certain segments of this plan are not going to come to fruition.”
The Montrealer facilitator
Enter Brian Searles, who served as Vermont’s secretary of the Agency of Transportation until Dec. 31. The state just brought him out of retirement to push VTrans’ second priority — passenger rail from St. Albans to Montreal — across the finish line.
Searles will earn $100 per hour as a consultant to work one or two days a week and facilitate communication among parties in Vermont and Quebec for the next year or so. He said Vermont has already upgraded its railway from St. Albans to the Canadian border.
Amtrak started the original “Montrealer” train from Montreal to Washington, D.C., via Vermont in 1972. Amtrak stopped running to Montreal in 1995, and the train’s northern terminus has been in St. Albans since then.
Searles served as secretary of transportation twice between 1994 and 2014. He said there have always been obstacles to putting the Montrealer back into service, and the state is at the best place in 20 years to make it happen.
The major remaining obstacle is upgrading rail lines in Quebec, Searles said. Getting local, state, and federal governments together has always been a challenge, and while border security became a bigger issue in 2001, the U.S. and Canada signed a game-changing treaty this year.
In March, the federal government signed a pre-clearance agreement with the Canadian government, allowing governments to perform customs inspections on foreign soil, among other things. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the move will reduce congestion and increase efficiency at the border.
“In the end, I’m looking forward to train service into Montreal,” Searles said Monday. “If you have a terminus among 4 million people up in Montreal, then you can start generating significant ridership, which will reduce the level of subsidy for state governments.”
Rail advocates support plan
Christopher Parker, executive director of the Vermont Rail Action Network, said the 2015 draft rail plan strikes a good balance between showing the “alarming” state of Vermont’s railroad infrastructure and setting “aspirational” goals for the next 20 years.
Parker and his organization have been advocating for years to improve freight rail lines. He also supports the Rutland-Burlington and Burlington-Montreal passenger lines.
“I would say the chances are quite high for both of those things,” Parker said. “Getting [from Burlington] to Montreal, there are some expenses, but it’s mostly a matter of working out agreements. Going from Burlington to Rutland, we’re very close already.”
The state has about 15 miles left of track to upgrade, according to VTrans, and would need to build more railroad crossings and a station in Middlebury and possibly Vergennes. The total cost of rail between Rutland and Burlington is $26.4 million. Parker also predicted that the two lines could be completed “in the next few years” with the right funding.
William Notte, president of the Rutland City Board of Aldermen, said he was pleasantly surprised to find out that VTrans’ top priority is bringing passenger rail from Rutland to Burlington.
“We really want it to be a really easy corridor of traffic,” Notte said of U.S. 7. “I do think that’d be a huge quality of life boost, and I’d like to get people from northern Vermont down to sample what we offer. I do think this will happen.”
