An ambitious, $8.25 Billion list of New York rail transportation improvements has been submitted to Washington in a bid for stimulus funding, including money for a dedicated high-speed track between the Capital Region and Buffalo.
Among 37 projects the state has identified are the purchase of new locomotives and passenger cars, a second track between Albany and Schenectady, replacement of a 130-year-old swing bridge across the Hudson River at Albany, and platform extensions at the Albany-Rensselaer station, according to an article in the Albany Times-Union. Additional funding for the long-proposed Moynihan Station in Manhattan is also included, according to the report.
An ongoing problem that has thwarted efforts to improve passenger service Upstate has been coordination with freight trains over tracks owned by railroads such as CSX and Canadian Pacific, and state transportation planners now propose that New York begin to acquire the tracks on the east side of the Hudson between New York City and Albany, according to the report.
Read the full Times Union story at:
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=819921&category=BUSINESS
