FRA Disburses Small Rail Grants

The Federal Railroad Administration and state transportation departments are pushing small stimulus grants through to bolster the rail system even though there is no word yet on any of the larger grants FRA will award to handle more passenger trains.

North Carolina’s DOT this week issued eight grants totaling more than $9 million which bolster projects worth more than $100 million in all.

The FRA is due soon to announce the first round of grants out of its $8 billion Recovery Act funding pool for high-speed passenger rail development, but is not saying when it will make those announcements. Those will go to both freight railroads and all-passenger systems to beef up track systems for busier and faster passenger trains.

The first-round applications were due Aug. 24 and a second round on Oct. 2. Last summer, just the pre-applications of hoped-for projects proposed by states topped $100 billion.

Meanwhile, the agency recently distributed seven grants that total $14.3 million to rail line relocation and improvement projects in six states.

Those include $4 million to relocate part of a Norfolk Southern Railway yard at Lancaster, Pa., that was cutting through the town and a college.

Another $4 million will go to work on tracks, a bridge and customs office at West Brownsville, Texas. A $2 million project at Tuwila, Wash., will realign tracks of Union Pacific Railroad, thereby shortening a second-phase overpass project and making some blocked-off land accessible for development.

That batch of grants included two that totaled nearly $4 million for North Carolina. The state DOT said one is a $2.85 million award to help rebuild five track miles on short line Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad with new crossties and heavier track. Another for almost $1 million will relocate and expand a CSX Transportation switching yard at Greenville.

North Carolina said those were among the $9 million in grants it was pushing through this week. Others were mainly to either improve crossings over railroads or to build structures to separate the tracks from roadways for several rail lines in different parts of the state.

Contact John D. Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.