After debate earlier this week, the House is set to vote on the 2012 Energy & Water Appropriations Bill, perhaps as early as Thursday, which contains an amendment that will strip all unspent high-speed rail grants awarded in the stimulus bill. If this bill is passed, the Northeast will lose critical rail projects and badly needed jobs, such as the Northeast Corridor improvements in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ($449M), the Harold Interlocking project in Queens, New York ($295M), improvements to the New Haven-Springfield rail corridor in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts ($30M), and improvements to the Keystone Corridor in Pennslyvania ($40M).
Now is the time for advocates to contact their Representatives and tell them to protect high-speed rail funding in their districts. Please call and/or email the members who stand to lose money from the rescission. Provided below is link to a PDF list of each legislator who will lose funding and the estimated number of jobs lost by each canceled project. Advocates can also visit StandUpForTrains.org, where they can send an email to their representatives demanding protection for these investments.
The proposed rescission flies in the face of the Northeast's strong desire to invest in its rail system. The May 2011 grant awards represented an important victory for the region. After being ineligible in earlier grant rounds, the Northeast Corridor joined the wider Northeast region to become the biggest winner in the May funding round, receiving almost half of the $2 billion in awarded grants. Now, this bill threatens to reverse that victory by denying the Northeast its hard-earned high-speed rail funding.
These important rail projects will benefit the over 750,000 intercity and commuter rail riders that rely on the Northeast Corridor and its branch lines every single day. Consider the largest grant: $450 million for Amtrak to upgrade a 24-mile stretch of track between New York City and Philadelphia. For the users of this line, the project is making desperately needed repairs. Suffering from years of poor investment, the line's electrical system is increasingly susceptible to failure (including two breakdowns in a single day in June) causing delays for the over 140,000 riders on NJ Transit and Amtrak who rely on the line to reach jobs in New York City and New Jersey. And the benefits of the project go well beyond transportation. The project is estimated to create over 12,000 jobs.
In total, the Northeast stands to lose up to $1.2 billion in grants. Projects at risk include:
- $450 million to Amtrak to upgrade 24 miles of track between NYC and Philadelphia,
- $295 million to New York State to replace Harold Interlocking in Queens, NY, where frequent conflicts create delays for over 300,000 daily Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak riders,
- $243 million to New York State for improvements on the Empire Corridor,
- $66 million to Pennsylvania for improvements on the Keystone Corridor,
- $30 million to Connecticut for the New Haven- Hartford-Springfield Rail Corridor,
- $29 million to Maryland to initiate the replacement of the Susquehanna Bridge, a century-old span carrying the NEC from Baltimore to Washington, DC, and
- $22 million to Rhode Island to construct a third track on NEC at Kingston station.
Without these projects, the Northeast will lose ten of thousands of jobs and valuable investments in its rail system. We encourage you to contact your Representatives now.
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