August 17, 2011
High Speed Rail Scorecard
by Alan LaGreen – Senior Contributing Editor Super Speed Train News
With the recent shocks to the nation’s economy from the debt-and-budget battle in Congress to Standard & Poor’s downgrading of the nation’s bonds, where does this leave the ambitious national push for High Speed Rail?
As recently as February 2011 (and after an initial outlay of $10.5 billion in funding was awarded in 2010) Vice President Biden was announcing an ambitious $53 billion that would be forthcoming from the Obama Administration over a six-year period. But with the 2010 elections shifting the balance of power in Congress and the worsening economic outlook, it appears that approval for any additional outlays will be an uphill battle.
But, what became of the initial appropriations? Where did the money go, and how much High Speed Rail will it buy?
According to Brie Sachse of the U.S. Department of Transportation, of the original appropriation, more than $6 Billion has been awarded to states to date. The Federal Railroad Administration anticipates the remaining grants will be disbursed before the September 30, 2012 date for the Recovery Act to expire. In May 2011, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $2 million in new grants (although some of these had, in fact, been previously announced.)
Grants awarded to date range from $87,000 for improvements to the existing Amtrak depot in Lawrence, Kansas to a little over $1 billion to complete improvements to the Union Pacific’s Chicago-St.Louis mainline to provide faster runtimes for Amtrak “Lincoln Service” trains. The largest dollar amounts go to California for its proposed LA area-San Francisco HSR.
While the projects are certainly improvements to America’s overall passenger rail infrastructure, other than the fact that they were issued under the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program (HSIPR) few of the projects are what the general public would associate with “High Speed Trains.” In all, almost $5 Billion has been designated for improvements to existing Amtrak, or regional rail routes, with a few bucks aimed at developing some new Amtrak corridors. Except for various planning studies, most of these grants fall under the “shovel ready” category, and range from $125 million for track improvements to ease the bottleneck going into Chicago’s Union Station, to almost $6 million to repair the roof of the Portland, OR station.
“True HSR” scored one major grant — of the $8 Billion, almost $3 Billion goes to the California High Speed project for first phase planning, design and construction of the Fresno-Bakersfield leg and some funds for equipment.
Several other grants, most in the half-million dollar range were awarded to several states for rail planning, but these efforts may or may not yield plans for true HSR. In the grants to California, $400 million are earmarked for the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, which will be the Northern terminus for the HSR line, but will also be used for other rail services such as CalTrain.
So, not counting several planning projects, which could lead to HSR projects in several states, California comes out as the primary true HSR line to receive any significant funding. For the time being, and except for the existing Amtrak Acela service, the fledging California HSR project appears to be the only game in town.
Here’s a scorecard of where the initial $8 Billion down payment has gone (figures from the FRA as of August 5, 2011.) HSR grants and studies that could result in HSR proposals are indicated in bold:
High Speed Rail Scorecard
Grants awarded as part of the initial funding of the High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program from the “Stimulus Plan” (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act)
NORTHEAST US
New York
Adirondack Corridor capacity improvements $3,318,333
Empire Corridor improvements $58,000,000
Station Improvements Rochester, NY $1,500,000
Station improvements additional Rochester, NY $1,400,000
Station Improvements Buffalo, NY $727,400
Planning Empire Corridor $1,000,000
Bridge replacement $2,000,000
Manhattan track improvements $295,000,000
Connecticut
N.E. Corridor track improvements $40,000,000
Rhode Island
N.E. Corridor track improvements $25,000,000
Providence Station improvements $3,000,000
Maine
Boston-Portland service $35,000,000
Boston-Portland corridor planning $600,000
Boston-Portland additional funding $3,385,495
Vermont
New England Central RR improvements $50,000,000
Vermont-New York State planning $500,000
Massachusetts
Corridor improvement project $72,800,000
New Jersey
Portal Bridge project construction $38,500,000
Pennsylvania
Grade crossing improvements $18,000,000
Philadelphia-Harrisburg signaling improvements $46,300,000
Philadelphia-Harrisburg planning $750,000
Delaware
Planning project $450,000
Susquehanna River Bridge repairs $22,000,000
Maryland
Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel project $60,000,000
Baltimore Airport station improvements $9,400,000
District of Columbia
Union Station access improvements $4,270,500
West Virginia
High Speed Rail planning $1,000,000
North Carolina
Charlotte-Raleigh station improvements $16,907,922
Charlotte-Raleigh conventional pass. equipment $20,333,936
Charlotte-Raleigh engineering $21,663,532
Charlotte Station construction $22,000,000
Charlotte-Raleigh corridor construction $461,094,610
Environmental analysis for Charlotte-Richmond HSR $4,000,000
Georgia
Macon-Jacksonville feasibility study $250,000
Planning study $250,000
Atlanta-Birmingham feasibility study $250,000
Florida
Tampa-Orlando High Speed preliminary engineering $66,660,000
Michigan
Battle Creek station improvements $3,620,552
Kalamazoo-Dearborn track and signal rehabilitation $196,500,000
Ohio
Cleveland-Cincinnati preliminary engineering RETURNED
Illinois
Track improvements Chicago area $125,986,998
Chicago-St.Louis double track planning $1,250,000
Chicago-St.Louis corridor construction $100,133,604
Bridge replacement $3,710,960
Chicago-St.Louis corridor construction $1,042,190,396
Conventional passenger equipment $268,201,084
Wisconsin
Milwaukee-Chicago track improvements $11,074,934
Milwaukee station platform construction $678,021
Milwaukee-Madison planning RETURNED
Milwaukee-Madison High Speed Rail planning RETURNED
Minnesota
Minneapolis-Duluth HSR engineering work $5,000,000
Iowa
Track improvements $17,309,080
Statewide rail planning $400,000
Missouri
Kansas City-St.Louis track improvements $570,000
Kansas City-St.Louis grade crossing projects $1,920,000
Kansas City-St.Louis track improvements $611,200
Kansas City-St.Louis passing sidings $836,800
Kansas City-St.Louis passing sidings $958,800
Kansas City-St.Louis grade separation $850,000
Kansas City-St.Louis double track project $1,418,800
Design new Mississippi River bridge $13,500,000
Kansas
Station improvements, Lawrence station $87,563
Statewide rail planning $250,000
Oklahoma
Statewide rail planning $375,000
Texas
Dallas-Houston HSR engineering and environmental $15,000,000
Colorado
Statewide rail planning $400,000
Denver area rail and transit study $1,000,000
Nevada
Statewide rail planning $640,000
Washington
Seattle-Portland additional Amtrak service $590,000,000
Seattle-Portland additional service $145,458,912
Vancouver grade separation $15,000,000
Oregon
Portland Union Station roof repairs $5,900,000
Bridge improvements $500,000
Eugene station trackage analysis $1,500,000
California
Los Angeles-San Diego Corridor improvements $950,000
LA-San Diego maintenance of way sidings $1,720,000
Bicycle storage on passenger cars $8,230,000
Locomotive emissions upgrade $13,295,511
San Jose-Roseville route station improvements $18,000,000
San Jose-Roseville track relocation $6,200,000
San Diego-Paso Robles planning study $200,000
Statewide rail planning $1,500,000
Conventional locomotives and passenger cars $68,000,000
High Speed Phase 1 $231,500,000
High Speed Rail Fresno-Bakersfield $2,234,676,231
San Francisco Terminal (HSR and commuter) $400,000,000
San Francisco-San Jose HSR $16,000,000
HSR rolling stock acquisition $100,000,000
Multi State
Purchase of locomotives and cars for Midwest trains $268,200,000
Today the markets are in mess created by too many politicians who never had good intentions for the tax payer. Their good intentions rewarded those who reward them. Evidence is over whelming against this CA project especially in the Central Valley of California. Regardless of the empirical evidence the system is in fast forward to shovels in the ground. However, when it fails, those that created it will be out of office or have met their maker. So nothing on their shoulders, so who cares? Well this tax payer does, leave me alone, cut departments & agencies at the federal, state & local levels now. Cancel all union contracts, freeze wages at their current level for at least 10-years or more, I pay taxes for basic services. I do not pay taxes for bloated pension programs that pay out more than one makes the day before retirement. I defended this country for 22 years and got 60% of my salary with small increases and was threatened a few weeks ago with non-payment of my promised retirement check & because I am a military retiree I am an easy target, same for social security. My answer is simple, cut the wages & benefits for government employees whether federal, state or local. Sorry for the tirade but enough is enough.
Want to know who is the main, driving force behind this California HSR “Train to Nowhere” boondoggle? The entities that are driving Democratic politicians to keep supporting a project that will not pencil out, will require hundreds of billions to construct (due to mega project cost overruns) and require billions in yearly operating subsidies because no one but business travelers will be able to afford the high ticket prices – who are these entities behind HSR? Well, watch this video and public comment from the CA Sentate Transportation Committee hearing on May 3, 2011 (where State Senator LaMalfa’s state SB22 to defund the CAHSRA and project was being discussed). In the OPPOSITION public comment to this bill you can see who speaks against LaMalfa: 1. California Labor Federation (union); 2. State Operating Engineers (union); 3. State Buildings and Construction Trades Council (union); 4. California State Federation of Laborers (union); 5. State Laborer’s Council (uion); 6. Contractors/Vendors standing to make money off the project (i.e. Siemens/Parson’s Brinkerhoff, etc. The Unions support Democratic politicos, from Governor Brown, to Galgliani, etc. There is also a revolving door between former public sector Democratic politicos then going “in house” with fat “non-public” employment contracts that aren’t subject to a Public Records Request for review of those contract – so they need to make sure the boondoggle and BILLION DOLLAR CONTRACTS are still being awarded when they leave office – it’s about the money, money, money – that’s it: http://www.youtube.com/user/derailhsr?blend=1&ob=5#p/u/38/sDEgullAF5w