DOT Finalizes Grant to Target Delaware Rail Snag

The Department of Transportation’s finalization of a grant this week for rail work near Wilmington, Del., sets the state for improvements to freight and passenger train operations in that state and southeastern Pennsylvania.

The DOT’s $13.3 million grant intercity passenger rail grant, along with $38.4 million from the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Administration, allows Delaware to add 1.5 miles of a third track near the Wilmington station.  That will help eliminate what the DOT said is “a chokepoint on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor,” which runs from Washington, D.C., to Boston.

The work, involving bridge replacement and two more track crossover switches, will also give freight and area commuter operations greater flexibility in dispatching trains and a boost in on-time performance within the corridor, official said.

This is the latest in a flurry of rail grants the DOT has been finalizing at a furious pace in August and September, which promise improvements for both freight and passenger service. The grants were initially awarded months ago, but state and federal agencies, Amtrak and freight railroads had to negotiate detailed implementing contracts before the DOT could formally obligate those funds.

Federal agencies pushed to finalize those deals before the current federal budget year expires Sept. 30. Obama administration officials have also pushed to lock in the funds so that congressional opponents of passenger rail funding could not try to cut any money that was not officially committed to specific projects.

As a result, the Federal Railroad Administration has cleared hundreds of millions of dollars recently in pending rail grants. While in many cases the actual construction will not begin until the 2012 construction season next spring or summer, the obligations allow states or Amtrak to finish their preparations knowing the money will be there as they need to draw on it.

-- Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/jboydjoc