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$500 million available in seventh round of TIGER grants
At least these TIGER grants will be improving our rail capacity in many areas. The addition of underpasses or overpasses also reduce road congestion, and help emergency vehicles get to their destination quicker. We could fix all these problems in 5 years, by simply cutting off foreign aid to third world countries and using OUR money to rebuild and improve OUR country’s transportation infastructure. The Chicago area CREATE project has completed some very important projects, but until it is 100% completed, it simply moves the congestion further down the track.
BNSF double-track projects are helping to reduce congestion in the Dakotas, expecially with the increase in frac sand and pipe trains coming in, and crude oil tankers leaving the area.
Kansas City has seen increased speeds (and less congestion) due to the flyovers that have been recently built there.
And the Tower 55 improvement project in Ft. Worth, TX has the ability to improve passenger rail times between Dallas and Ft. Worth, and eliminate the back-up move that the Texas Eagle has had to endure to reach the station. An easier solution (in my opnion), would be to double-track the entire 30 mile stretch of the TRE rails, and allow Amtrak full use of those tracks between DUS and FTW.
Amtrak shoukld be moving to the TRE soon Philip. That will also allow Amtrak to access another airport, DFW, if they can get an okay to have trains stop at the Centre Point station on the TRE line. There is a free shuttle bus to DFW.