Tag: Federal Railroad Administration

Federal Dollars Flow to Study Georgia Rail Projects

The Center Square

The federal government has awarded $1.5 million to study the possibility of running passenger trains on a trio of corridors in Georgia.

The Federal Railroad Administration awarded $500,000 to the Georgia Department of Transportation to study a possible Atlanta-to-Savannah line. It also provided $500,000 to the North Carolina Department of Transportation to evaluate a Charlotte-to-Atlanta line and $500,000 to the city of Chattanooga to study an Atlanta-to-Chattanooga-to-Nashville-to-Memphis route.

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‘Don’t Want to Get in the Way’: Pete Buttigieg Declines to Visit Site of Minnesota Fiery Train Derailment

Georgia Star News Staff

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Thursday that he will not visit a small Minnesota town that was evacuated after a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) train derailed and caught fire earlier that morning.

Raymond, Minnesota, residents who live within a half mile from the derailment site were evacuated after approximately 22 cars derailed and four caught on fire around 1:00 a.m. CST. The train was carrying mixed freight including ethanol and corn syrup.

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Programs, Awareness Campaigns Not Stopping Railroad Crossing Crashes

The Center Square

As freight trains grow longer and more frequently block railroad crossings, federal dollars are going toward removing grade crossings.

“A lot of organizations and agencies have education and awareness campaigns to stay off the tracks, but every year thousands of people still walk along and across tracks and many are killed or injured,” Benjamin Dierker, the executive director of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure, told The Center Square via email.

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Georgia Completes First Project Under Federally Funded Rail Program

The Center Square

The state has upgraded 138 miles of the Heart of Georgia Railroad, the first project the state has completed under a federal program to upgrade rail projects nationwide.

In 2018, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded $2 million in Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grant funding. The state contributed another $2 million in bond funds for the project.

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Feds Doling Out $2.3 Billion to ‘Expand and Modernize’ Intercity Passenger Rail

The Center Square

The federal government is looking to dole out nearly $2.3 billion to “expand and modernize” intercity passenger rail across the country.

But a leading transportation analyst says that Amtrak, the nation’s passenger railroad, doesn’t have any plans to break even.

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New Rail Regulation Rule Proposal Has No ‘Plausible Safety Justification’

The Center Square

A new proposed rule change to expand railroad regulations without any safety justification “prioritizes politics over sound, data-driven safety policy,” industry experts argue. If implemented, they warn, increased regulatory burdens could drive up shipping costs when consumers already are grappling with 40-year-high inflationary price increases.

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