2010 Grant Applications, Over $2 Billion Available

Is there a master list of all the grant requests somewhere? I checked FRA and USDOT and came up with nothing.

AFAIK, there is no public list of applications as of now. It is likely that FRA will produce a list at some point in the future (there is one for the ARRA applications), but probably not until after the awards are announced.

Virginia:

Press Release:
http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/news/details.aspx?id=513

Appomattox River Bridge PE/NEPA ($1.2M):
http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/news/files ... 080210.pdf

Richmond-Arlington PE/NEPA ($44.3M):
http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/news/files ... 20Form.pdf

Washington State has requested $80 million.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/08/1 ... -rail.html
Included in the request is $6.4 million for a border inspection siding at Blaine and $7.6 million for preliminary engineering for slope stabilization south of Bellingham to prevent future landslides.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... TopStories

WSJ article from Aug on the topic. I'd put it in the Amrak section.

According to the author, many states are short of cash to make the 20% match. What I don't like is the use of "high speed rail" money for low speed Amtrak or state run projects. It ain't HSR at 79 mph. I don't mind the states getting into a state rail program on the California model.

To my mind the most important need is to address a possible re-route of the Chief. Most of the freight has shifted south to the Belen line.

We might see the announcements on who will get the awards from the $2.3 billion by the end of this week, if not early next week. Any thoughts on which applications will be granted? The FY2011 HSIPR funds may only be $1 to $1.4 billion total and who knows beyond that? So, hopefully, they will pick the application awards carefully for projects that can show substantial improvements for this year funding.

Got to support the CA and FL HSR projects, but those won't show any results for a long time. Maybe $800 to $900 million between the two.

For the applications for the 79 to 110 mph calls service, would be nice to see four of the larger applications granted.
$308 million for the Chicago-Detroit corridor. Got to take the opportunity to buy an existing freight line so much of the route is owned by either Amtrak and Michigan, so passenger service will have priority and the corridor will easier to upgrade for true HSR someday.
$220 million for the New Haven-Springfield corridor to establish it as a base for improved service into New England.
$248 million for the Chicago-Iowa City corridor. Not high speed, but expand service to a state that supports passenger rail.

If Florida gets a bunch of HSR money, it may make it difficult to fully fund the FL FEC application, but adding service to a bunch of new stops on the FL coast for the relatively low cost of $249 million is hard to pass up.

$46 million for VA for the DC to Richmond and Appomattox bridge engineering studies as the DC to Richmond to Petersburg route is critical to connecting the SE HrSR corridor and Florida service to the NEC.

With what is left, grant some of the projects applications for NY, WA, NC to make some progress on those corridors and some start funding for the Portal Bridge project. Will be interesting to see who get what.

I think that the failure of the Class I host railroads to come to an agreement on most of the projects funded in the first round of grants is going to negatively affect their chances in the second round. The exception to this would be in Michigan where the NS is willing to sell the right-of-way.

That diminishes the chances of improvements to the CSX in Virginia and New York. The chief beneficiaries are likely to be Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey.

Next year the pot will only be about half as large and a larger percentage of the requests are likely to be for rolling stock instead of track improvements.

Disclosure: I presently hold stock in NS, but may sell it today.

LOS ANGELES -- California is getting a $194 million federal grant to fund planning of a 520-mile high-speed rail line.

The U.S. Transportation Department said today that the stimulus money will help pay for preliminary engineering and environmental analyses of segments connecting San Francisco to Anaheim.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority says the grant will be matched dollar for dollar with state funds.

Authority Chairman Curt Pringle says the grant demonstrates the federal government's continued confidence in the project, which has been criticized over its route selection and business plan.

Earlier this year, the federal government awarded a $2.25 billion grant to help cover a portion of the $43-billion system. The authority is counting on additional funding from $10 billion in voter-approved bond financing and additional federal and private investments.

http://www.mercurynews.com/california-h ... ck_check=1

jamesinclair wrote:

LOS ANGELES -- California is getting a $194 million federal grant to fund planning of a 520-mile high-speed rail line.

The U.S. Transportation Department said today that the stimulus money will help pay for preliminary engineering and environmental analyses of segments connecting San Francisco to Anaheim.

As the article says, this is stimulus money, not FY2010 funds. From other news articles on this grant to the CA HSR project, this is a release of funds from the $2.25 billion awarded earlier this year for preliminary engineering and EIS for 520 miles of the 800+ mile planned CA HSR project. I've seen posts elsewhere where people are confusing recent press releases about release or distribution of the HSIPR stimulus funds with the FY10 grants which have not been announced yet. It is often a long process from the announcement of a grant or award before the funds are actually distributed or put into an account that the state agencies and contractors can draw from. The same is going to be true for the FY10 grants, although probably won't take as long because states should be better prepared to spend rail funds.

afiggatt wrote:

jamesinclair wrote:

LOS ANGELES -- California is getting a $194 million federal grant to fund planning of a 520-mile high-speed rail line.

The U.S. Transportation Department said today that the stimulus money will help pay for preliminary engineering and environmental analyses of segments connecting San Francisco to Anaheim.

As the article says, this is stimulus money, not FY2010 funds. From other news articles on this grant to the CA HSR project, this is a release of funds from the $2.25 billion awarded earlier this year for preliminary engineering and EIS for 520 miles of the 800+ mile planned CA HSR project. I've seen posts elsewhere where people are confusing recent press releases about release or distribution of the HSIPR stimulus funds with the FY10 grants which have not been announced yet. It is often a long process from the announcement of a grant or award before the funds are actually distributed or put into an account that the state agencies and contractors can draw from. The same is going to be true for the FY10 grants, although probably won't take as long because states should be better prepared to spend rail funds.

Yeah I think youre right. I heard the money would be handed out this week, so I thought this was part of the new grant.

Still no announcements for the FY2010 HSIPR grants, but the Tiger II transportation grants - $600 million total - were announced yesterday. The DOT press release with links is at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/dot18810.html. Two of the grants were $10 million for the Moline IL multi-modal station and $10 million for the Des Moines Iowa Multi Modal hub. The DOT announcement list project description for the Des Moines station refers to "future passenger rail". I take these 2 grants as a strong indicator that the application for the Iowa City - Quad Cities - Chicago route will be granted whenever the HSIPR FY10 grants are announced.

I wonder if a reason for the delay in the HSIPR grant announcements is the question whether Gov. Christie will stick to canceling the ARC project because that would impact on the NJ application for the Portal bridge project and the NEC. Canceling the ARC project would leave $3 billion of federal transit money for La Hood to figure out what to do with which could get interesting.

afiggatt wrote:Still no announcements for the FY2010 HSIPR grants, but the Tiger II transportation grants - $600 million total - were announced yesterday. The DOT press release with links is at http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2010/dot18810.html. Two of the grants were $10 million for the Moline IL multi-modal station and $10 million for the Des Moines Iowa Multi Modal hub. The DOT announcement list project description for the Des Moines station refers to "future passenger rail". I take these 2 grants as a strong indicator that the application for the Iowa City - Quad Cities - Chicago route will be granted whenever the HSIPR FY10 grants are announced.

I wonder if a reason for the delay in the HSIPR grant announcements is the question whether Gov. Christie will stick to canceling the ARC project because that would impact on the NJ application for the Portal bridge project and the NEC. Canceling the ARC project would leave $3 billion of federal transit money for La Hood to figure out what to do with which could get interesting.

I doubt that the delay is specifically related to the ARC project. That is New Starts money through the FTA, and there are fairly heavy constraints on what can be done with those funds.

[quote="mkellerm"I doubt that the delay is specifically related to the ARC project. That is New Starts money through the FTA, and there are fairly heavy constraints on what can be done with those funds.[/quote]
I was not thinking about the $3 billion of federal funds in terms of being used for HSIPR projects, as I would expect there are constraints on what La Hood can do with the funds which may take the lawyers and politicians months to figure out what they do with the funds if Gov. Christie pulls the plug on ARC or restructures the program so much that construction work will have to be delayed for years.

It was the NJ Transit $885 million HSIPR application that I was wondering if part of it was tied to ARC. I found the NJ Transit press release on the application (http://www.njtransit.com/tm/tm_servlet. ... SE_ID=2618) which makes it clear they are applying for funds for the 3 track north Portal bridge replacement, not the 2 track south Portal bridge replacement which is tied to ARC. Would be interesting to see the actual application for more details than the vague press release stating the application is for "renewal and replacement of key infrastructure on the Northeast Corridor, such as aging bridges, power supply and signal systems between Trenton and New York City." Constant tension catenary on the long straight run in New Jersey to allow for 150 mph Acela operation for example?

The 3 track high level replacement for the Portal bridge is a critical project for the NEC. But the $2.3 billion won't go very far if they allocate $600 or $700 million of it for the north Portal bridge. There should be other federal funding pots Amtrak and NJT can tap to build the north Portal bridge without more years of delay.

The 2010 grant funding has been awarded and sent to Congress, so the grant recipients will start leaking out today and tomorrow. Senator Nelson from Florida has already announced that Florida received $800M for Tampa-Orlando and another $8M in planning money for Orlando-Miami. One of the articles can be found here (Lakeland Ledger)

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's office today announced Florida will get an additional $800 million in federal money to help pay for construction of a high-speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando.

Nelson, D-Florida, said he was informed of the grant by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

If this follows the precedent of the Tiger II grants, the announcements will leak out over the next couple of days and then there will be an "offical" announcement later in the week.

Im not sure if this is new money, or an allocation of the last round:

The timing suggests it's new.


" A $715 million award from the federal government could lay the tracks for the central San Joaquin Valley to become the starting point for high-speed passenger rail service in California.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, announced today that the Federal Rail Administration has allocated more than $902 million for a futuristic bullet-train system that would speed passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles, by way of the Valley, at speeds of up to 220 mph. Of that, Costa said, $715 is earmarked specifically for the Central Valley to be the first part of the system to be built."

More at:

http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/10/25/213 ... z13P3xzYRI