(The following story by Craig Wolf appeared on the Poughkeepsie Journal website on May 1.)
KINGSTON, N.Y. — Rail traffic will move more swiftly through the city, and so will road traffic where the rails cross the asphalt.
CSX Transportation Inc. will get $604,000 from the state Department of Transportation to make track improvements and to construct rail siding in Kingston, state Transportation Commissioner Astrid Glynn announced.
The grant is part of $20 million for rail projects across the state, and the only one awarded in the mid-Hudson Valley.
Jennifer Post, a spokeswoman for the state DOT, said, “This project will add signals to an existing track siding that will allow an increase in train speeds from 10 to 30 miles per hour on the siding, which will reduce the duration of grade-crossing blockages in Kingston.”
Grade crossings are places where the road and the tracks are on the same level, or grade. When a train comes, vehicle traffic must wait until the train clears the intersection.
Post said there are several spots where the tracks can hold up traffic. A long train “takes some time at that speed to go into the siding and out of the siding,” she said.
When the project is done, the delay time for drivers could be about a third of what it is presently.
Post said the total project cost is about $1.7 million and the company had money left over from grants in earlier rounds of the Passenger and Freight Rail Assistance Program.
The criteria for this round include economic development, readiness to build, environmental impact, reducing trucks on highways, sustainability of the rail network, safety and security, Glynn said in a news release.