Full list of passenger routes in FRA Corridor program released

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration has released its list of routes selected for the first step of its Corridor Identification and Development Program, a catch-all group of 69 potential future Amtrak routes, possible extensions to existing routes, efforts to increase service on existing routes, and future high speed rail systems.

Thirty-three of these routes had previously been reported by Trains News Wire as they were announced by elected officials; in the lists below, they are indicated with italics.

The vast majority of routes are corridor services that will require state support, but among the routes seeking increased service are Amtrak’s two current triweekly long-distance trains, the New York-Washington-Indianapolis-Chicago Cardinal and the Los Angeles-New Orleans Sunset Limited.

Selection is the first phase of a process that could take as much as seven to 10 years before service begins on new routes, according to some of those involved. It brings a $500,000 grant to be used to create a Service Development Plan, which estimates the cost and timeline for launching service, among other features. That grant goes to the organization that applied for inclusion in the program, indicated in parentheses on the lists below.

The selections were presented in four categories: new routes, existing routes with extensions, existing routes, and high-speed rail.

FRA Administrator Amit Bose said in a statement that the agency is “taking full advantage of the resources we have to advance world-class passenger rail services nationwide. Today’s announcement is another step forward as we advance transformative projects that will carry Americans for decades to come and provide them with convenient, climate-friendly alternatives to congested roads and airports. We’re thinking about the future too with comprehensive and systematic planning efforts to transform the U.S. intercity passenger rail network now and in the years to come.”

New routes

A total of 34 new routes were selected; some are in advanced stages of planning and others have essentially been previously unknown. They are:

— Asheville-Salisbury, N.C. (North Carolina Department of Transportation)

— Atlanta-Savannah, Ga. (Georgia DOT)

— Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis (City of Chattanooga)

— Baton Rouge-New Orleans (Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development)

— Boston-Springfield, Mass-Albany, N.Y. (Massachusetts DOT)

— Charlotte-Kings Mountain, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)

— Chicago-Quad Cities (Illiinois DOT)

— Chicago-Fort Wayne-Columbus-Pittsburgh (City of Fort Wayne, Ind.)

— Chicago-Peoria (City of Peoria, Ill.)

— Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati (Ohio Rail Development Commission)

— Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit (ORDC)

— Delaware “Diamond State Line” — Newark/Wilmington-Dover-Salisbury/Berlin (Delaware Transit Corp.)

— Dallas-Meridian, Miss. “I-20 Corridor” (Southern Rail Commission)

— Dallas-Fort Worth-Houston “Texas Triangle” (Texas DOT)

— Eau Claire, Wis.-Twin Cities (Eau Claire County)

— Fayetteville-Raleigh, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)

— Fort Collins-Denver-Pueblo, Colo. “Front Range Corridor” (Front Range Passenger Rail District)

— Houston-San Antonio (Texas DOT)

— Jacksonville-Orlando-Miami (Florida DOT)

— Los Angeles-Coachella, Calif. “Coachella Valley Corridor” (Caltrans)

— Louisville-Indianapolis (Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency)

— Miami-Orlando-Tampa (Florida DOT)

— Milwaukee-Madison-Eau Claire-Twin Cities (Wisconsin DOT)

— Minneapolis-Duluth, Minn. “Northern Lights Express” (Minnesota DOT)

—Newport News-Richmond-Charlottesville-New River Valley, Va. “Commonwealth Corridor” (Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation)

— New Orleans-Mobile, Ala. “Gulf Coast service” (Southern Rail Commission)

— “North Coast Hiawatha” — Chicago-Seattle/Portland via southern Montana (Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority)

— Phoenix-Tucson, Ariz. (Arizona DOT)

— Reading-Philadelphia-New York (Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority)

— San Jose-San Luis Obispo, Calif. “Central Coast Corridor” (Caltrans)

— Scranton-New York (Pennsylvania DOT)

— Twin Cities-Milwaukee-Chicago expansion (Wisconsin DOT)

— Wilmington-Raleigh, N.C. (North Carolina DOT)

— Winston-Salem-Raleigh (North Carolina DOT)

The hodgepodge nature of the Corridor ID program is illustrated by programs ranging from the nearly ready to run, such as the Gulf Coast route, to those that seem rather hastily assembled, like the Delaware proposal that has yet to define endpoints. The second train on the Empire Builder route between Chicago and the Twin Cities is for some reason classified as new service rather than fallling into the existing route categories below.

Existing routes with extensions

Some 13 routes fall into this group:

— Amtrak to Long Island (Amtrak): A proposal to extend three existing Northeast Regional round trips between Washington and New York to Ronkonkoma, N.Y., on the Long Island Rail Road, with intermediate stops at Jamaica and Hicksville.

— Capitol Corridor (Caltrans): Would add to the existing San Jose-Auburn, Calif., corridor with extensions to San Francisco, Salinas, and Novato, Calif., and Reno/Sparks, Nev.

— Downeaster Corridor (Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority): Would extend the route to Rockland, Maine, add additional frequencies, add an infill station at West Falmouth, Maine, and make improvements to allow better connections in Boston, where the Downeaster uses a different station than all other Amtrak services.

— Green Mountain Corridor (Vermont Agency of Transportation): Would connect New York and Burlington, Vt., via Albany, N.Y.,and Rutland, Vt., dovetailing with the Ethan Allen Express by providing new service to communities including Bennington and Manchester, Vt., and Mechanicville, N.Y.

— Extension of Chicago-Quincy corridor to Hannibal, Mo. (Missouri DOT): Would extend the route currently used by the Ilinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg.

— Heartland Flyer extension (Kansas DOT): Would extend the current Fort Worth-Oklahoma City train northward to Wichita and Newton, Kan., where it would connect with the Southwest Chief [see “Kansas DOT holds public meeting …,” Trains News Wire, Nov. 10, 2023].

— Kansas City, Mo.-St. Joseph, Mo. (Missouri DOT): Would provide a connection with the existing Missouri River Runner.

— San Luis Obispo-San Diego LOSSAN Rail Corridor (Caltrans): Proposes a small extension — from its current southern endpoint of San Diego to San Ysidro, Calif, about 16 miles — as well as additional frequencies and improvements to reliability.

— Milwaukee-Green Bay Hiawatha extension (Wisconsin DOT): Would extend the existing Chicago-Miwaukee service.

— San Joaquin Valley Corridor (Caltrans): Would extend the existing service north from Sacramento to Chico and Redding, Calif., while also increasing frequencies.

— Vermonter Corridor (Vermont Agency of Transportation): Would extend service north to Montreal, with creation of a customs preclearance facility at Montreal’s Central Station, add frequencies, and reduce travel time.

— Washington to Bristol, Va. Corridor (Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation): Would extend existing Northeast Regional service between Washington and Roanoke Va, to Bristol; add an infill station at Bedford, Va.,. and increase frequencies.

— Wolverine Corridor (Michigan DOT): Would extend service to Windsor, Ontario, and include improvements to travel time and reliability.

Existing routes

These 15 routes — eight of them previously reported — seek additional frequencies or other infrastructure improvements, with other details as noted:

— Adirondack Corridor (New York State DOT): Seeks a custom preclearance facility in Montreal

— Amtrak Cascades Corridor (Washington State DOT)

— Anchorage North and South Corridor (Alaska Railroad Corp.)

— Charlotte-Washington Corridor (North Carolina DOT): Seeks improvements including the Raleigh-to-Richmond project that received a $1.1 billion Federal-State Partnership grant.

— Chicago-Carbondale Corridor (Illinois DOT)

— Chicago-Grand Rapids Corridor (Michigan DOT)

— Chicago-Port Huron Corridor (Michigan DOT)

— Chicago-St. Louis Higher-Speed Corridor (Illinois DOT)

— Daily Cardinal service (Amtrak)

— Daily Sunset Limited service (Amtrak): Like the Cardinal, would be increased from the current triweekly schedule.

— Empire Corridor (New York State DOT)

— Hartford Line Corridor (Connecticut DOT)

— Indianapolis-Chicago Corridor [Indiana DOT]: Could the Hoosier State live again? Indiana says it seeks new frequencies and improved travel times on this portion of the Cardinal route, and is undertaking this effort in connection with the daily Cardinal project.

— Keystone Corridor (Pennsylvania DOT): A selection tied to the $143.6 million Federal-State Partnership grant for improvements between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg.

— Milwaukee-Chicago Hiawatha Corridor (Wisconsin DOT): Previous efforts to increase service were shot down by objections in Glenview, Ill., to a siding that was part of an agreement between Amtrak, Canadian Pacific, and the other parties involved.

High speed routes

While clearly projects of a different nature than those above — both in orders of magnitude of expense and timeline for development — high-speed projects have been included in the Corridor ID program, presumably because selection is a key to eligibility for other forms of federal funding. Only the Charlotte-Atlanta project had previously been mentioned as part of the Corridor ID program in announcements by legislators, although the California and Brightline West projects received major federal funding in the Federal-State Partnership program.

— Dallas-Houston (Amtrak)

— Fort Worth-Houston (North Central Texas Council of Governments)

— Brightline West (Nevada DOT)

— California High-Speed Rail phase 1 (California High-Speed Rail Authority)

— Cascadia corridor — Vancouver, British Columbia-Portland, Ore. (Washington State DOT)

— Charlotte, N.C.-Atlanta, Ga. (North Carolina DOT)

— High Desert Corridor — Victor Valley-Palmdale, Calif. (Antelope Valley Transit Authority)

Notably, there are competing Texas high speed projects. Amtrak has joined with the Texas Central project, while the North Central Texas group would include both Dallas and Fort Worth; the latter was left out of the Texas Central plan. Like the other projects, these receive $500,000 grants, which likely won’t go very far for high speed planning.

— Updated at 11:32 a.m. CST with comment from FRA Adminstrator Amit Bose.