FRA's Corridor ID Program and possible new Corridors

[BlackDiamond]

Do Amtrak LSA’s work those cafe’s?

If not, why don’t other state funded trains do likewise?

No the Cafe attendants on the Downeaster are NexDine employees.

Unfortunately this means their pay scale is at the normal food service level rather than Amtrak union scale, so I usually try to tip generously to make up for this.

I'm not sure how the NNEPRA managed to slip this one through, I imagine the Amtrak unions were not too happy about this precedent.

 

[jis]

I'm not sure how the NNEPRA managed to slip this one through, I imagine the Amtrak unions were not too happy about this precedent.

Leasing Rolling Stock and OBS staffing are two entirely separate issues. Just because you get a bunch of cars and have the T&E provided by Amtrak does not mean they are obligated to take OBS too, specially when there is no historical precedent, as in the case of the Empire Service.

 

[railiner]

Leasing Rolling Stock and OBS staffing are two entirely separate issues. Just because you get a bunch of cars and have the T&E provided by Amtrak does not mean they are obligated to take OBS too, specially when there is no historical precedent, as in the case of the Empire Service.

So, why don’t other state supported trains in other regions do similar? Would’t it lower their cost?

 

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

What North Carolina submitted earlier in the year. The list is from an email Carolina Association for Passenger Trains sent to membership a few days ago.

• Charlotte to Washington, DC
• Wilmington, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Charlotte, NC to Kings Mountain, NC
• Greenville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Hamlet, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Morehead City, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Fayetteville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Charlotte, NC
• Weldon, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC
• Salisbury, NC to Asheville, NC
  

 

[Brian Battuello]

Speaking of the Downeaster (Boston North Station to Brunswick, Maine), there has been discussion from time to time about extending the Downeaster from Brunswick to Rockland. There was a tourist train for several years between Brunswick and Rockland, but it didn't connect well with the Downeaster. The tourist train service ended after their agreement with the host railroad ended several years ago. The host railroad has been merged into CSX, who seems slightly more willing. Meanwhile there is a company hoping to run service using Budd RDCs.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...-for-pilot-of-brunswick-rockland-rdc-service/
I happened to be talking with a Rockland train enthusiast, and he said that the current problem is that the tracks are currently rated for 30mph, and it would require a lot of money to upgrade them. Does anyone know more about this, and what else might be a barrier to extending the DE'r?

 

[BlackDiamond]

There was a tourist train for several years between Brunswick and Rockland, but it didn't connect well with the Downeaster.

For most of the time the Maine Eastern service was running (2004 - 2015) the Downeaster only ran to Portland. Service to Brunswick didn't begin until 2012. I don't know what arrangements there were in the few years from 2012 to 2015 when there was the possibility of a connection. The times I rode the train predated the Downeaster to Brunswick and I recall a somewhat temporary wooden platform west of where the station is today, near the wye connection to the Lewiston Lower branch.

 

[Pelucon]

As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the FRA was ordered to establish the Corridor Identification and Development Program (Corridor ID), with the purpose of providing assistance in the development of new, enhanced, and restored intercity rail corridors.

On May 13, 2022, the FRA published a Notice of Establishment in the Federal Register, which lays out the program's purpose and procedures. Included within the Notice, the FRA encourages individuals and entities to post comments as well as Expressions of Interest regarding new, enhanced, and restored routes.

The Notice of Establishment can be found here.
A list of posted comments and Expressions of Interest can be found here.

I started this thread in hopes of keeping a running tally of those Expressions of Interest. Many of the entries are from entities proposing corridors that many of us are already familiar with, but there might be a few surprises.

AS OF SEPTEMBER 22, 2022-

1) Southern Rail Commission

New Orleans, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama
Baton Rouge, Louisiana to New Orleans, Louisiana
Meridian, Mississippi to Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
Shreveport, Louisiana to Baton Rouge, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida

2) City of Madison, WI AND Cities of Madison, Watertown, and Pewaukee, WI (two entries)

Extension of passenger rail service (Amtrak Hiawatha) from Milwaukee to Madison WI

3) Louisville Metro Government

Extension of passenger rail service from Indianapolis, IN and/or Cincinnati, OH to Nashville, TN with a connection in Louisville, KY

4) City of Peoria, IL

Establishment of passenger rail service between Peoria, IL and Chicago, IL
(As a side note - Peoria has decided to apply for both Corridor ID and CRISI funding, and has appropriated $100,000 towards the application process.)

5) Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority and PennDOT AND Congressman Matt Cartwright (two entries)

Establishment of rail service from Scranton, PA to New York, NY via Lackawanna Cut-off, as proposed in Amtrak's Connect US plan

6) Greater Oklahoma City Chamber

Expressing interest in the extension of passenger rail service (Amtrak Heartland Flyer) from Fort Worth, TX to Newton, KS

7) California High-Speed Rail Authority

Seeking federal support in completing the initial 171-mile operating segment between Merced and Bakersfield, CA

8) Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority

Expressing interest in restoring passenger rail service from Reading, PA to Philadelphia, PA, as per Amtrak Connects US

9) Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Providing enhancements to current service and expansion of service, along the segment between Boston, MA and Albany, NY, currently used as part of the Lake Shore Limited and the Berkshire Flyer

10) The Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities

Los Angeles, CA to Salt Lake City, UT through Las Vegas
Tucson, AZ to Reno, NV through Las Vegas, NV and Phoenix, AZ
Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV to Salt Lake City, UT
Las Vegas, NV to Phoenix, AZ
Las Vegas, NV to Reno, NV
Las Vegas, NV to Los Angeles, CA

11) Front Range Passenger Rail District

Regarding the establishment of a Front Range corridor, between Pueblo and Fort Collins, CO, as described in Amtrak's Connects US Proposal

12) Wyoming Department of Transportation

Also advocating for the same Front Range corridor, but with a northern terminus at Cheyenne, WY

13) Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority

Improvements to the Amtrak Downeaster and the advancement of a passenger rail service pilot program to Rockland, ME as well as opportunities to support connecting services

14) High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Authority

Creation of passenger rail service from Palmdale to Victorville, CA

15) Washington State Department of Transportation; and Oregon Department of Transportation (one entry)

Proposed Cascadia Ultra High Speed Rail corridor between Vancouver, B.C., Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, and Eugene, OR

16) Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency

Cleveland-Elyria-Sandusky-Toledo-Chicago
Cleveland-Buffalo-Rochester-NYC
Cleveland-Pittsburgh-Philadelphia-NYC
Cleveland-Washington, D.C.
Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit

17) Georgia Department of Transportation

Seeks assistance in preparing a service development plan for Atlanta to Savannah, GA high-speed passenger rail service

18) I-75 Central Corridor Coalition

Establishment of new passenger rail service from Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson International Airport to Macon and Robins AFB, GA

19) New York State Department of Transportation

Proposed enhancements on the Empire Corridor between New York City and Albany, NY, providing improvements to the following routes-
Empire Service - New York, NY to Albany, NY
Maple Leaf - New York, NY to Toronto, ON
Adirondack - New York, NY to Montreal, QUE
Ethan Allen Express - New York, NY to Burlington, VT

Also expresses support for MassDOT's attempt to improve Albany, NY to Boston, MA segment

20) Pima Association of Governments AND Arizona Transit Association (two entries)

Expression of interest and support of Amtrak's attempts to develop three daily roundtrips between Tucson, Phoenix, and Buckeye, AZ

21) North Central Texas Council of Governments

An expression of support for Texas Central's high-speed passenger rail corridor
(A side note - an individual left a comment stating Texas Central's FEIS should be thrown out, as it is based on inaccurate information)

22) Shoshone Paiute Tribes

Creation of passenger rail service from Boise ID to Elko NV (No idea if that means via Pocatello, ID and Ogden, UT or building a direct connection)

23) City of Boise, ID

Expression of interest regarding establishing passenger rail service between Boise, ID and Salt Lake City, UT

24) City of Jamestown, NY

Establishment of corridors that will provide passenger rail services from
Niagara Falls and Buffalo, NY to Jamestown, NY
Binghamton, NY to Jamestown, NY
Erie, PA to Jamestown, NY.

Comment suggests the route between Erie, PA, Jamestown, NY, and Binghamton, NY would open up quicker and more direct routes from New York City to Chicago

25) Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART)

Directly from the document-

SMART submits our two publicly owned corridors for consideration:
▪ Cloverdale to Larkspur on our north-south mainline, with an emphasis on the rural northern portions of the corridor between Cloverdale and Windsor; and
▪ Novato to Suisun-Fairfield on our east-west Brazos branch line, connecting through to the national rail network.

26) City of Green Bay, WI

Extension of Amtrak’s Hiawatha connecting Green Bay, WI and cities throughout the Fox River Valley to Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL.

More will be posted when and if they are published

A few surprises as to what is not here yet-

Ohio's 3Cs + D
Charlotte to ATL
Nashville to ATL
Birmingham to ATL
Montgomery to ATL
NYC to Allentown, PA

Thanks for posting this - it will be fascinating to see which applications are selected - and given the $500k (without any match requirement) to develop the proposal further.
The announcement was due "late fall" - does anyone have an idea when the FRA will be announcing?

 

[TransitTyrant]

As of Tuesday the 5th of December confirmed Corridor ID routes receiving money for study are
NY-Scranton
3C+D
Chicago-Ft Wayne-Columbus-Pittsburgh
Detroit-Toledo-Cleveland
Daily Cardinal
https://www.poconorecord.com/story/...rak-route-gets-500k-move-forward/71813416007/
The Ohio information is directly from Senator Brown.

 

[user 14106]

PA senators dropped something too.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...DKAB6BAglEAE&usg=AOvVaw3M4uOhZgI48tObPcDT_fXt

 

[OmahaRoad]

Add the Nashville - Chattanooga - Atlanta corridor to the list.

Article link here.

Excerpt from the article:

"The city of Chattanooga has been awarded a $500,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Corridor ID Program to fund a comprehensive study to develop the scope, the cost, engineering, and other requirements needed to establish Amtrak passenger rail service on existing alignments between Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta.

The grant, which the city of Chattanooga applied for earlier this year, puts the Tier 1 priority passenger rail project into the federal government’s development pipeline and moves the region’s residents closer to realizing enhanced intercity rail connectivity, officials said.

 

[BlackDiamond]

I wonder what there is to study about daily Cardinal service. Seems it is just a matter of equipment and crew availability.

 

[user 14106]

I wonder what there is to study about daily Cardinal service. Seems it is just a matter of equipment and crew availability.

There’s addressing capacity requirements the host railroad may demand and securing a congressional commitment for sufficient subsidies to sustain a daily Cardinal. Though there are a couple projects in the fed state pipeline to deal with the former aspect of it. If the daily Cardinal and or sunset got the full green light Friday then I’d expect the equipment for such to be included in the base order for LD equipment. This is probably one reason why they waited until late this year to drop the order - to see the results of the first grant award so that they could determine the number of units for the base order vs. options. They did state that anything new LD wise already awarded grants by order time could make it into the base bid for equipment. Anything subsequently awarded over the next couple years would be covered by options.

 

[Septa9739]

There seems to be a capacity problem in VA. The Cardinal’s leading cause of delay is passenger train interference on the Buckingham Branch and NS. I know VA is working to improve capacity on NS around Culpeper, but the data and my experience bear out that the bigger problem might be the meet around Crozet. Eastbound is especially problematic. Given the BBRR isn’t super busy in an absolute sense, I’d hope this could be resolved by scheduling, but a capacity improvement may be needed.

 

[Bostontoallpoints]

https://www.poconorecord.com/story/...rak-route-gets-500k-move-forward/71813416007/
The Federal Railroad Administration is providing $500,000 for the Scranton to New York City Amtrak route to move forward, the most critical step yet in restoring passenger rail through the Poconos.

The route has been accepted into the Corridor ID Program, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and Congressman Matt Cartwright announced Tuesday afternoon.

“I am thrilled to make this long-awaited announcement. This is a significant milestone and represents years of dedicated efforts to restore passenger rail service, which will contribute to our region’s economic growth and vitality,” Cartwright said.

The two cities have not been connected by passenger rail since 1970.
The proposed Pennsylvania stops are Scranton, Mount Pocono and East Stroudsburg. The one-way run time is under three hours, and Amtrak proposes three trips daily in each direction.

 

[cocojacoby]

Add the Nashville - Chattanooga - Atlanta corridor to the list.

Article link here.

Excerpt from the article:

When we have discussed restoring a Chicago-Florida train, this is the portion of the route that was pretty much dismissed as being too slow and curvy and not workable. I find it interesting that we maybe starting in the middle and extending things at either end would be a real possibility.

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

There seems to be a capacity problem in VA. The Cardinal’s leading cause of delay is passenger train interference on the Buckingham Branch and NS. I know VA is working to improve capacity on NS around Culpeper, but the data and my experience bear out that the bigger problem might be the meet around Crozet. Eastbound is especially problematic. Given the BBRR isn’t super busy in an absolute sense, I’d hope this could be resolved by scheduling, but a capacity improvement may be needed.

Didn't know the delays were mainly there. CSX runs long empty coal trains westward on the BBRR (corridor now owned by the state), while the full ones go east along the James River. There are a few tunnels between Crozet and Waynesboro, probably all single-track, including the famous one built by Claudius Crozet, educated at post-Revolutionary France's engineering school. It's now an unlit trail, replaced by a new tunnel in 1944, but arrow straight, so you can barely see daylight even in the middle. Before it was a trail, it was walled up in an attempt to store gas there in the Second World War, and remained that way until recently. Highly recommended for railfans and geology fans. Blue Ridge Tunnel.

 

[west point]

None of the sidings as I have heard are long enough for the empty coal trains to fit. Guess it will be up to Virginia or a federal grant to extend 1 or more so Cardinals can pass. The present Cardinal schedules have them pass each other now between Charlottesville and Staunton on the BBrB RR. Daily Cardinals will pass each other as well between Connersville and Cincinnati on CSX. Sometimes may meet at Cininnati.

 

[user 14106]

For Arizona - Sunset to Phoenix got into Corridor ID.

 

[OmahaRoad]

North Carolina really cleaned up when it came to Corridor ID, I have to say. As discussed earlier in this thread, they submitted 11 corridors to the program and received a total of $3.5 million to study 7 of them, which is impressive! The routes/improvements selected to study include (Thanks @McLeansvilleAppFan for creating the original bulleted list above!) the following:

• Charlotte to Washington, DC
• Wilmington, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Charlotte, NC to Kings Mountain, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Fayetteville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC
• Salisbury, NC to Asheville, NC

 

[moselman66]

Does it seem like everything is essentially individual leaks via a congressperson so far? Leak might be too strong of a loaded term but I'm eager to see a comprehensive list to know what is / isn't chosen.

 

[jis]

Does it seem like everything is essentially individual leaks via a congressperson so far? Leak might be too strong of a loaded term but I'm eager to see a comprehensive list to know what is / isn't chosen.

The official announcement is on Friday.

 

[user 14106]

Does it seem like everything is essentially individual leaks via a congressperson so far? Leak might be too strong of a loaded term but I'm eager to see a comprehensive list to know what is / isn't chosen.

Not leaks. Congress people are usually advised of the grant awards at the beginning of the week to give them the opportunity to announce them to constituents if they desire - with official announcements the end of the week.

 

[OmahaRoad]

Wisconsin Corridor ID awards:
Milwaukee to Green Bay: The proposed Corridor would connect the existing Hiawatha service between Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI with an extension to Green Bay, WI. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

Milwaukee to Chicago: The proposed Corridor would provide improvements to the existing Hiawatha service between Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL by adding new frequencies. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

Milwaukee to Madison to Eau Claire: The proposed Corridor would connect Milwaukee, WI to Minneapolis, MN through Madison, WI and Eau Claire, WI. The proposed Corridor would provide new service on an existing alignment. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

Eau Claire to Twin Cities: The proposed Corridor would connect St. Paul, MN to Eau Claire, WI. The proposed Corridor would provide a new service on an existing alignment.

Chicago via La Crosse to St. Paul: The proposed Corridor would initiate a new daily round-trip between Chicago, IL and St. Paul, MN to complement the existing Amtrak long-distance Empire Builder, with an extension to Minneapolis, MN. Senator Baldwin submitted a letter of support for the project, which can be found here.

 

[Anderson]

North Carolina really cleaned up when it came to Corridor ID, I have to say. As discussed earlier in this thread, they submitted 11 corridors to the program and received a total of $3.5 million to study 7 of them, which is impressive! The routes/improvements selected to study include (Thanks @McLeansvilleAppFan for creating the original bulleted list above!) the following:

• Charlotte to Washington, DC
• Wilmington, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Charlotte, NC to Kings Mountain, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Fayetteville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC
• Salisbury, NC to Asheville, NC

So, vs the original list submitted, we have:

• Charlotte to Washington, DC
• Wilmington, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Charlotte, NC to Kings Mountain, NC
• Greenville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Hamlet, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Morehead City, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Fayetteville, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Winston-Salem, NC to Charlotte, NC
• Weldon, NC to Raleigh, NC
• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC
• Salisbury, NC to Asheville, NC

Of the no-goes, Hamlet and Weldon were probably DOA because they didn't go through to either Columbia, SC or Norfolk, VA (respectively) while Morehead City and Greenville just don't have many people there. I am surprised that Winston-Salem to Charlotte didn't get thrown in alongside Winston-Salem to Raleigh, however.

Edit:
I'm sort-of scratching my head at Charlotte-Kings Mountain falling under this program. It feels more like a bona fide commuter project (not that that's a bad project to pursue), though in defense of it this one seems like it could conceivably pop out a station at the airport, which would probably be a pretty big traffic generator (I'm pretty sure that American would rather not have to bother with CLT-GSP flights anymore...).

One that's missing from the NC list (courtesy of stupid state borders) would be Charlotte-Columbia (that same issue was probably a fatal shortcoming in the Hamlet proposal).

 

[Willbridge]

Here's a story on the Front Range study.

Feds accept Colorado’s Front Range rail project into key grant program