New Hampshire, Neighboring States Vie For Rail Funds

New Hampshire’s top rail official says he’s read the comments by Federal Rail Administration official Karen Rae.

She was quoted by the Associated Press as saying California looked good for funds because voters there had approved 9 billion dollars in bonds for high speed rail.

And she also praised several Midwestern states for banding together for lines that would radiate out from Chicago.

Peter Burling chairs the New Hampshire Rail Transit Authority, the group trying to bring commuter and high speed rail to the state.

He says he’s not surprised these other states look so good.

I understand why ms rae speaks warmly of California and the Midwest. I’m not going to belittle their efforts. There’s no question they’ve done extraordinary efforts. But new England has very important, very viable and shovel ready projects that need to get going.

Part of New Hampshire and New England’s problem is no one knows how much high speed rail would cost.

New Hampshire lawmakers could have funded a study in 2004 of the projected costs of the Boston to Montreal line, but refused to do so.

Still, even without this knowledge, Burling says there are several projects worthy of stimulus money.

The first is Amtrak’s Downeaster, which rumbles through coastal New Hampshire.

Maine officials want to extend the line to Brunswick.

In addition, officials want track upgrades so they can shrink travel time between Portland and Boston.

Burling says other lines such as Springfield to Boston, Springfield to Brattleboro, and Boston to Montreal could benefit from a jolt of stimulus money.

All of these things are the refurbishment of existing rail lines and the emphasis as I say has always been shovel ready. We’re talking about existing railroad tracks which need new rail new ties new roadbed and new signaling systems and then you’re running 90 mile an hour trains.

State officials admit there won’t be money for trains unless there’s stimulus money coming from Washington.

New Hampshire officials have heard from the Obama administration that their application will be better received if it is a joint effort with other New England states.

Toward this end, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen says her office has been involved in getting New Hampshire’s Transportation Commissioner to talk with officials from surrounding states.

We organized a call with George Campbell from our own DOT on June the 10th and we had transportation officials from 5 states from northern New England as well as representatives from 10 senate offices on that call talking about working together and putting together a regional plan, a vision for high speed rail.

The vision for the Boston to Montreal high speed line is linked to the effort to bring commuter rail to what planners call ‘the capital corridor’.

That project would launch passenger service in Concord, Manchester and Nashua.

These New Hampshire trains would travel down much of the MBTA commuter line currently connecting Lowell and Boston.

Planners say a dose of stimulus money would give that project a needed jolt and provide a base for the Boston to Montreal high speed line.

Attorney Tom Irwin of the New Hampshire chapter of the Conservation Law Foundation says the states are under a lot of stress to get an application together.

The federal government is requiring a preliminary application by July 10th, but their instructions reached the states just last week.

Irwin says that doesn’t leave the states much time.

Well the time window is short, there’s no doubt about that. But all the state agencies have been aware for quite some time what the deadlines would be. But it is a short time window and I know all the states that are working on grant applications are scrambling.

Federal officials have left little doubt that California and several Midwestern states will get some federal stimulus money.

But New Hampshire officials say they expect New England to get some too, once their application comes together.

They just don’t know how much they’ll get.

They also say they expect to see more funding for rail in the future.

Congress has only recently begun working on a new transportation bill for the country.

In their discussions, lawmakers have initially budgeted 50 billion dollars for high speed rail.