Upper half of the W. Corridor is the more substantial one for freight. Most of VRS's freight traffic runs east-west from Whitehall to Rutland, then distributes at Rutland to all points on the compass. Largest share keeps going east to Bellows Falls for the NECR and PAS interchanges, and for haulage to VRS's isolated Washington County sub on the upper Conn River Line. Next-highest share goes up the Western Corridor to Burlington where population density and local biz is simply higher. And then the lower W. Corridor has a relatively small share in part because of longstanding Pan Am disinterest in that interchange vs. the one at Bellows Falls, and the much lower density vs. the upper half of the line. Traffic patterns are starting to change now that Norfolk Southern is sinking its teeth further into New England and picking up all of CP's south-of-Albany holdings, but the south half is a bit behind the north half in track maint and track class. VRS takes good care of all of its lines, but they apportion accordingly.
What'll help a lot is that the timing of Phase II dovetails neatly with NS digesting its recent acquisitions and its eventual buyout of Pan Am's 50% share of the Pan Am Southern venture so they control 100% of that route and make their major push for competitive parity with CSX in New England. Then you'll see the traffic levels through Hoosick Jct. start swelling to the point where it reshapes freight patterns on VRS's network through NS's gravity. Which also solves the issue of how to upgrade Mechanicville-Hoosick Jct., since NS is likely to self-fund Class 3 running speeds on the PAS main once it boots its weaker partner Pan Am out of the picture. VTrans will be able to make a pretty solid case to the Feds for upgrade grants on the south half in large part because of the demands the NS effect will make for renewed south-of-Rutland infrastructure, 286K, CWR, better running speeds, etc. And since VT started investing a lot earlier than its neighbors in state-funded freight projects it isn't spread too thin by a backlog and should be able to go for it with decent odds of success so long as political winds don't reverse. But the timing for that sale job on funding is 5 years from now: after the north-half is finished and EAE extended, and after NS's next 2 or 3 chess moves pull PAS completely in-house with upgrade plans for bona fide CSX parity. Even if VTrans had the means to multitask, it would still be better for them to wait and sync up their push with NS's to maximize their funding chances. So that also has to be considered here: what if the half-decade of Rutland reverse awkwardness is necessary because that's precisely what increases their funding leverage the most (i.e. building the Burlington ridership AND waiting out the more favorable freight conditions around the corner reshaping the gravitational pull at Hoosick Jct.). There's good reason for them being locktight consistent about order of priority for these two EAE phases, and why one is being fast-tracked while one isn't.
