TIGER Eludes CT Rail, Again
In February, Connecticut’s freight railroad industry held its breath — in vain — for $109 million in federal transportation funding to update the deteriorating rail grid.
For the next round of federal funding to be announced Sept. 7, no one waits in anticipation. The end result remains the same: Zero.
When the U.S. Department of Transportation had $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants, the Connecticut Department of Transportation submitted seven freight rail applications for $109 million. After failing to get anything, DOT officials didn’t apply for the $600 million in TIGER grants to be awarded Tuesday.
Freight rail advocates see state officials spending billions on highways and passenger rail while their industry operates on infrastructure 100 years old, incapable of meeting modern standards. “I see no evidence that the state is committed to freight rail,” said State Rep. David McCluskey, D-West Hartford. “The state needs to get in the game.”
Nationally, rail is the most popular way to move freight between cities, accounting for 43 percent of ton-miles. In Connecticut, rail trails trucking, which moves more than 90 percent of the 79 million tons of freight. Rail moves 4.6 percent of Connecticut’s freight.
The state funds freight rail proportionately. DOT invested $282 million in freight rail in 10 years, while the agency has $2.5 billion for roads and bridges for the next five years.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s initiative to relieve highway congestion focuses on people. In August, the state bond commission approved $486 million for passenger rail programs.
“More people we get off the highways and into rail cars removes congestion,” said Rell spokesman Rich Harris. “We don’t see this as coming at the expense of freight rail.”
To relieve road congestion, Rell would be better putting truck freight onto rail, McCluskey said. Rail lines need improvement for double-stacked containers and loads up to 286,000, the modern industry standard.
“Our surrounding states are partnering up with their freight railroads,” McCluskey said. “I’m hoping the next governor will see freight rail… as the benefit that it is.”
In DOT’s original TIGER funding applications, the agency stressed the importance using freight rail more, calling for a 25 percent increase in tonnage over the next 20 years.
The importance diminished for this TIGER round, with DOT merely submitting letters of support for local freight rail applications. The Providence & Worcester Railroad, through Sprague, submitted a $12.1 million request to repair aging infrastructure; and the New England Central Railroad, through Mansfield, submitted a $7.8 million request to upgrade for the 286,000 standard.
More railroads could have applied, but they were notified too late, said A.J. Belliveau, Central New England Railroad president. In February, that railroad requested $42 million for track upgrades. More than 90 percent of that track — leased from state DOT — was built in 1896, needing constant maintenance.
“Anything would have been helpful,” Belliveau said.
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