Maryland wins a fifth of requested stimulus funding for rail projects

The federal transportation department has awarded Maryland nearly $70 million in stimulus money to upgrade the state’s rail system, the White House announced Thursday.

The Maryland Department of Transportation had requested a much larger share of those funds when it applied for the high-speed rail program in August. The department submitted a list of seven projects costing a total of $360 million.

But Maryland had to compete with other states across the country.

The money is part of a larger $8 billion pot of funds President Barack Obama set aside for high-speed rail funding in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded funds to 31 states, including $485 million to northeast regional states including Maryland.

“Through the Recovery Act, we are making the largest investment in infrastructure since the Interstate Highway System was created, putting Americans to work rebuilding our roads, bridges, and waterways for the future,” Obama said in a statement.

Congressman C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, a member of Maryland’s congressional delegation, praised the announcement as a vital step in improving the region’s high-speed rail system. Ruppersberger said the upgrades will help to increase ridership by making services like Amtrak more convenient and dependable.

“Baltimore is an integral part of the northeast corridor,” Ruppersberger said in a statement. “This investment will give Maryland residents and commuters more options for train service and will help make that service more reliable.”

Maryland will get $60 million to complete the engineering and environmental work for a new tunnel to replace the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel west of Penn Station along Amtrak’s Penn Line.

The state will get another $9.4 million for studies to make improvements at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Those improvements include a new Amtrak station building, platforms and pedestrian-access improvements to allow boarding on up to four tracks at the station, and advance plans to add a fourth track. The construction phase of that project is slated to cost between $80 million and $100 million but is not funded as part of Thursday’s stimulus announcement.

“The replacement of the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel in Baltimore and the upgrade of the BWI MARC/Amtrak Station are critical components of our MARC Growth and Investment Plan,” Gov. Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “Both will increase our ability to move people more efficiently by rail and reduce our dependence on the automobile.”

State Transportation Secretary Beverley K. Swaim-Staley said in a telephone interview Thursday that the projects are an important part of the state’s MARC Growth and Investment Plan, which seeks to encourage more Marylanders to commute by train rather than by car.

Swaim-Staley said the Baltimore and BWI projects will each help increase capacity along the Penn Line, one of the busiest lines serviced by Amtrak.

The BWI station sees 600,000 riders a year. But despite the importance of those upgrades, Swaim-Staley said the state has tried for more than a decade to set aside money to study them.

The stimulus money accomplishes that without any matching requirement for Maryland’s cash-strapped budget and will prime the pump for potential federal funding to construct the projects once the studies are completed. Swaim-Staley said she is pleased the federal transportation department awarded full funding for the study of those projects.

The state did not receive money for five other rail improvement projects. They included:

• $200 million to study the replacement of the two-track Bush, Susquehanna and Gunpowder bridges with wider three-track bridges. Amtrak, MARC and freight trains must slow down to cross the narrower bridges;
• $36 million for the final design and construction of a six-track yard at the Washington Terminal to reduce congestion and overcrowding of commuter trains stored at Union Station;
• $25 million to study a Chesapeake Connector creating a separation and third track from Perryville to Elkton;
• $10 million for a Positive Train Control system, providing MARC trains with GPS-based train locating technology;
• $18.3 million to update railway signaling between Silver Spring and Brunswick to expand capacity and reliability on the CSXT Metropolitan Subdivision.