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| Officials hope to boost Vt. rail | |
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| Topic Started: April 3 2009, 02:23 PM (65 Views) | |
| Gandalf | April 3 2009, 02:23 PM Post #1 |
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MONTPELIER, Vt. -- Transportation officials said Wednesday they plan to seek more than $125 million in competitive grant money to fund stem-to-stern passenger rail service along western Vermont, The Rutland Herald reported. A proposal by the Douglas administration last year to cut Amtrak service in Rutland has paradoxically revived a years-old push for expanded passenger rail service in Vermont. Douglas' proposal was scrapped after loud and uniform opposition across the state; agency officials now are hearing from economic leaders who say a Bennington-to-Burlington rail line will connect Vermont to major metropolitan markets and infuse the state with new economic vitality. "In these times, we've all been looking for that special spark to help Vermont generate that economic vitality," said Ben Hauben, president of Manchester Design Outlets. "If we in Vermont are going to create some kind of renaissance, I think this is the perfect opportunity to do that." Hauben was one of more than a dozen business people and economic leaders from Bennington County packed into a Senate committee room Wednesday. As officials in Chittenden County push for a Rutland-to-Burlington Amtrak extension, southern Vermont is working to make sure it isn't forgotten. "There's a fear that with all this focus on Rutland-to-Burlington, that a Bennington-to-Manchester-to-Rutland route is going to get left behind," Sen. Dick Sears, a Bennington County Democrat, told his colleagues in the Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday. A Bennington-to-Burlington route has been part of Vermont's long-range rail plans for decades. According to a transportation expert working for U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., the state has already invested approximately $50 million in track improvements over the past 15 years. Enormous work remains, however, to prepare the western-corridor rail bed for passenger service, according to Rob Ide, head of the rail division at the Agency of Transportation. "Right now what you have is a 20 mph freight railroad. If you've got 20 mph freight, then you've got 35- or 40-mph passenger, and that's just too slow," Ide said Wednesday. Cost estimates compiled in 2004 peg the cost of infrastructure repairs necessary for passenger service at about $65 million. Ide said the agency plans to apply for $126.6 million worth of competitive grant money included in the federal stimulus package to pay for the work. A "super-aggressive" schedule, according to Ide, could have new routes in place within three years. But he said any expansion in passenger rail service rests in the fate of those grant applications. "If we do not get federal stimulus money we cannot complete the project at this time," Ide said. "We are entirely dependent on stimulus dollars." Complicating the grant process is the apparent need for state matching dollars. Though states are not required to offer matching funds, according to Sanders' staffer Jeff Munger, the federal government is likely to favor proposals that include local funds. "We've got to put some skin in the game," Munger said. "If we're going to be successful, I think we've got to come up with some money." Ide said the House version of the transportation bill includes new revenue that could be used to supply that match money. Otherwise, he said, it will be largely up to municipalities, railroads and other local entities to help leverage the federal assistance. Joann Erenhouse, executive director of the Bennington Chamber of Commerce, said the state stands to reap dividends from any investment in passenger rail. Connecting western Vermont to New York City, she said, could woo high-wage earners in Manhattan to towns in her area. "Not only does it help connectivity generally, but there's a corollary infusion of money that will has almost unlimited potential for the state of Vermont," Erenhouse said. "The potential, I think, is tremendously exciting." (The preceding article by Peter Hirschfeld was published April 2, 2009, by The Rutland Herald.) April 2, 2009 |
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3:25 AM Jul 11