FRA issues ROD on NEC FUTURE

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued its Record of Decision (ROD) on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) FUTURE program that details a long-term vision for the corridor to improve and grow passenger rail service at a cost between $121 billion and $153 billion.

 

FRA says that NRC FUTURE is a “comprehensive planning effort to identify ways to improve the reliability, capacity, connectivity, performance and resiliency of passenger rail service throughout the Northeast Corridor through 2040 and beyond.”

The ROD marks the completion of the Tier 1 environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and establishes a long-term strategy for the NEC. FRA says the NEC FUTURE ROD expedites the environmental review process by focusing Tier 2 (project-level) environmental planning work and future analysis on priority issues and by establishing agency relationships and agreements that will expedite and coordinate reviews and by narrowing the range of possible alternatives that would need to be examined at the project level.

“Safe, reliable and efficient rail transportation is a vital part of our nation’s infrastructure,” says U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “And expediting the project delivery process is key to delivering needed infrastructure more quickly.”

Developed in concert with NEC states, local communities and railroads and with significant input from the public, the NEC FUTURE ROD lays out a menu of potential ways to improve passenger rail service by:

  • Increasing, and in some areas doubling, the number of regional commuter trains and providing three to five times more intercity trains.
  • Improving travel times between key city centers:
    • o Boston to New York City would be 45 minutes faster
    • o New York City to Washington, D.C., would be 35 minutes faster
  • Expanding the NEC to a four-to-six-track modernized, integrated rail network with sufficient capacity to accommodate the projected increase in demand for intercity and commuter rail service.
  • Adding more than 200 miles of expanded track capacity between Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn., and between Providence, R.I., and Boston, Mass.
  • Creating a seamless customer experience through integrated ticketing and convenient connections.
  • Preparing for the future by stipulating that “new segments should be designated for 220 mph operations, unless there are unique or exceptional constraints that justify limiting the highest practical speed.”
  • Calling for a New Haven-to-Providence Capacity Planning Study to identify on- and off-corridor infrastructure to address the capacity constraints, speed restrictions and flooding vulnerability along the Connecticut and Rhode Island shoreline.

“Given the high cost projections of the recommendations in the NEC ROD and the reality of state budgets, the completion of the Tier 1 study will enable states to better prioritize which projects to pursue,” said FRA Deputy Administrator Heath Hall. “Through this effort, localities will have a clearer picture of how their projects will fit in with the rest of the Northeast corridor.”

The approximate total cost estimate for all projects known to be within the parameters of the ROD totals $121 billion to $153 billion. The NEC FUTURE ROD does not include funding recommendations to implement suggested improvements; FRA says this is in recognition that those decisions must be made by local and regional stakeholders.

The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee included language in its proposed fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development funding bill that would see more than $900 million go toward the Gateway Program, a key element of the NEC FUTURE plan.

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