(The following story by Cathy Woodruff appeared on the Albany Times-Union website on February 11, 2009.)
COLONIE, N.Y. — The state Department of Transportation wants to put a dormant plan to lay a second railroad track between Schenectady and Albany back on the region’s transportation agenda and make it eligible for federal stimulus funding.
An 18-mile stretch of Amtrak’s Empire Corridor between rail stations in Schenectady and Rensselaer is a bottleneck that delays both passenger and freight trains at a critical point for travel in upstate New York.
“Reductions in delays between freight and passenger trains will improve service and make rail travel in the Empire Corridor more attractive,” Robert Hansen, DOT regional planning and program manager, wrote in a letter to the Capital District Transportation Committee, a transit-planning group.
“Decreased train delays would result in decreased emissions and improved fuel efficiency,” he added.
The estimated cost of the project is $60 million.
Delays along that section of single track are a longtime gripe for Amtrak passengers. Trains can wait 20 minutes or more to make their way through the section of shared track, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole.
“It’s a frustration for us,” he said, noting that eastbound trains already may be late because of accumulated delays to the west.
Amtrak trains pass through that section more than 80 times a week, Cole said. Many freight trains also pass through, and all trains receive their instructions to stop or proceed from dispatchers for CSX, the freight carrier in Selkirk.
The double-track project was on the region’s official transportation improvement program at one time, but “because of delays in funding and cost changes, it was taken off,” said David Jukins, assistant director at the Capital District Transportation Committee.
The CDTC’s Planning Committee, which includes representatives of municipalities and transportation agencies throughout the region, will decide later this month whether to put the project back on the so-called TIP, Jukins said.
DOT sought to have the project restored to the regional plan after agency officials determined that it could qualify for funding under the federal economic stimulus program being considered in Washington, said Don Hannon, director of the agency’s Office of Integrated Modal Services.
Because there already is sufficient room for the second track, the first steps in the project would likely include grading the new track bed, he said. That should help meet the quick-start rules tied to stimulus funding, Hannon said.
A 2012 completion date is anticipated, but interim steps to create sidings along the stretch also could help alleviate delays in the meantime, he said.