WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-High Speed Trains In Vermont?
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Montpelier, Vermont - April 16, 2009
Trains that zip from city to city traveling at speeds close to 200 miles an hour. That is the vision President Barack Obama laid out in a speech in Washington D.C., Thursday.
"What we need then is a smart transportation system equal to the needs of the 21st century," he said.
Obama says spending money to build more highways or add to an overloaded air travel system is a bad investment. His administration has set aside $8 billion so states can improve existing passenger rail lines and build new high-speed rail lines.
"There's no reason why we can't do this," said the President.
Vermont will not be asking for federal money to build a high speed system, though, at least not yet. The federal government would like to see a route run from Boston through Vermont and up to Montreal, but New Hampshire pulled out of the project in 2004, leaving that route in limbo. It took until four months ago for Vermont and Massachusetts to figure out an alternative route that runs from Boston to Springfield, Massachusetts, and then north to White River Junction, Vermont before going to Burlington and Montreal.
"We are in the infancy stages with this," says VTrans Director of Division of Planning, Outreach and Community Affairs, John Zicconi.
VTrans has secured $500,000 outside of the stimulus for a feasibility study of the rail plan. Massachusetts is also contributing to the study.
"We have to make sure that people would actually use this kind of a service," Zicconi says. "We have to understand what really lies in front of us in terms of fixing up the track and getting that designated a high-speed corridor."
VTrans says the study will probably take about two years. Depending on the outcome the state then might move forward with upgrading tracks and getting the high speed train. Obama has asked for another $5 five billion to be available for high-speed rails over the next five years so there is a possibility Vermont could still get some of that once it is ready to start physical work on the high-speed line.
In the meantime, Vermont is applying for $75 million in competitive stimulus grants to extend Amtrak service from Rutland north to Burlington, and south through Bennington to New York City. That money comes from the same $8 billion pot as the high-speed grants. It is money Obama hopes will go to upgrade existing lines to make that service faster as well.
Zicconi says the hope is to use that money to improve portions of rail line where Amtrak can only travel about five miles an hour. He says the goal is to allow trains to travel an average of 60 miles an hour. Studies suggest trains attract more passengers when they travel a minimum of 60 miles an hour.
VTrans is also applying for $25 million in competitive stimulus grants to upgrade freight lines throughout the state.
Bianca Slota - WCAX News
