Funding for 13 Amtrak-led projects will modernize rail in the Northeast Corridor and unlock major bottlenecks on the busiest passenger railroad in America, officials with Amtrak said Monday.
“Thanks to this new round of competitive grants, Amtrak will continue to deliver a new era of passenger rail and advance vital infrastructure projects that drive economic growth, create jobs and transform this critical corridor that benefits millions of Americans,” Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said.
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is one of the busiest and economically vital transportation systems in the world, officials said, and the competitive grants awarded through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration’s (FHRA) Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program will assist in addressing decades of under-investment and help replace aging infrastructure assets. The NEC has more than 2,000 daily trains operating over some portions of the Washington-Boston route each day, and provides connections for 7 million jobs within a five-mile radius of an NEC station.
The grants will support projects in northeastern states, including a project to expand the capacity of New York’s Penn Station to double passenger train service between New York and New Jersey from 24 to 48 trains per hour; a project to expand and modernize the 115-year-old Washington Union Station; a project to design and construct the redevelopment at Baltimore Penn Station, and several projects to replace aging bridges and rail infrastructure in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland, among other projects.