The money comes from a $500 million annual pot of money from the U.S. Department of Transportation called the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant program.
Vermont’s $10 million award will be part of a $26 million, multiyear project to extend passenger rail service on Amtrak’s Ethan Allen Express, which currently starts in New York City and ends in Rutland, north to Burlington.
Along the way, the state needs to replace about 11 miles of railroad tracks, much of which uses old technology that’s bolted together every 39 feet. The new technology would be continuous welded steel rail that allows trains to travel up to 59 miles per hour.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation received $9 million during a previous grant period to work on the same route, and has spent $65 million overall on the Rutland to Burlington tracks, which currently only carry freight. This year the state applied for a $12 million to complete a lynchpin in the rail network and received $10 million.
As part of the $26 million project, VTrans proposed using $11 million in state money to build rail infrastructure along the so-called western rail corridor, including a new passenger train station in Burlington. The state would ask for about $3.4 million in federal highway funding to upgrade the railroad crossings that motorists drive over.
“We have four years to do the work,” said Chris Cole, the secretary of VTrans. “I’m encouraging staff to try to get it finished in three. Either at the end of three years or at the end of four years you’ll be able to take the train from Rutland to Burlington.”
Cole said the state wants the maximum train speed to be 59 miles per hour. The agency would build a railroad station in Middlebury and a whistle stop in Vergennes, just north of Middlebury. The towns of Brandon and Shelburne have requested stops, he said, but the state hasn’t promised to build them.
“It’s always a balancing act between having a time-competitive train and then stopping to pick everybody up along the way,” he said. “The distance between Burlington and Albany is three hours by car, so we need to have a train that gets you there in at least that amount of time.”
“(The route is) going to induce more people to ride because it’s going to be a convenient, walkable train station in the city (of Burlington) where people can just walk from home, get on board, and take the train to New York City,” Cole said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin and the delegation said the following in a joint statement: “There is an overwhelming need here and across the country to improve our infrastructure for the 21st Century. We are glad that this grant will make those upgrades to the rail line along the Western Corridor to drive our economy forward. This investment is a win-win scenario for improving both freight and passenger service.”
Rutland has not had passenger rail service to Burlington since 1953, despite its storied history as the home of the Rutland Railroad. A graphic in the 2015 draft rail plan from VTrans shows that the regions of Shelburne, Middlebury, Manchester, and Bennington may be underserved by railroads.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in an interview he has been lobbying for more TIGER grant money since he took office in 2007. The federal stimulus package in 2009 set aside additional TIGER money, and, as recently as last week, he sat down with the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to reiterate why he thought Vermont should get the money.
“Rail, in particular in Rutland, is crucial,” Welch said. “Rutland does not have an interstate, and having a modern rail corridor is going to be a boost to the economic prospects for the Rutland region.”
