From the Wall Street Journal

Amtrak’s financial losses are projected to widen this year despite rising ridership, the top executive of the government-subsidized rail system said Tuesday.

From M-Live.com

Perhaps the most intriguing news from last week’s high-speed rail announcement was Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s suggestion that the next phase for Midwest rail upgrade could involve an international high-speed passenger route through Detroit.

Governor Rick Snyder yesterday agreed that connecting the Detroit-to-Chicago line to Canada’s rail system through Windsor would make sense.

“I would rather have us be in a longer-term circuit that goes Montreal  and Toronto to Detroit and Chicago to St. Louis and Kansas City,” said  Snyder.

A passenger line to Canada would change Detroit’s place in the rail system, from an end-of-the-line outpost to a crossroad for high-speed rail service from Quebec and Ontario to Chicago, and by extension, St. Louis and Kansas City.

International passenger rail from Detroit is, at least on the U.S. side, a realistic goal because the existing Amtrak route can easily connect to the rail tunnel under the Detroit River.

“It’s more problematic on the Canadian side than on the U.S. side because we’ve got the direct shot to the tunnel today,” said MDOT’s Tim Hester.

Hester adds that, to make the system work, Canada would need to invest in new infrastructure to route passenger trains from the tunnel to Windsor’s VIA rail station.

Windsor Member of Parliament Brian Masse believes Canada should make that happen.

“It’s important from Detroit to Chicago, but what would really benefit Detroit is if we had higher speed rail from basically Quebec City to Chicago,” said Masse. “What you’d be doing then is hooking into to Canada’s two largest provinces. That would really, in my opinion, throw things over the top in terms of trade and tourism.”

High-speed rail wasn’t part of the majority Conservative Party’s budget plan released before Canada’s national election earlier this month, so Masse admits a Detroit-Windsor passenger rail link will be an uphill fight in Ottawa. However, he also thinks the Detroit-to-Chicago line may motivate Canadian officials to make the necessary upgrades.

“This move from Michigan is critical because what it does, it puts pressure on the Canadian government to reciprocate some of the rail infrastructure improvements,” said Masse. “VIA rail is getting about a billion dollars across Canada for upgrades, but it will not increase capacity. It will modernize stations, it will improve the cars, so we already have money allocated to improve the service, but we have yet to see money to actually lower the travel time.”

The Obama Administration awarded a $200 million grant that will allow Michigan to upgrade tracks and make other improvements necessary to allow for high-speed passenger service between Detroit and Chicago. The project is expected to be completed in 2014.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/05/windsor_mp_brian_masse_pushes.html

From The Times of Northwest Indiana

The $71.4 million Indiana Gateway at Porter Junction is one of the Federal Railroad Administration’s top five priority high-speed rail projects, but work will not begin until there’s a deal for fixing the Englewood crossing in Chicago, Administrator Joseph Szabo said.

“They are both critically important projects for both the fluidity of the freight network as well as the passenger network,” Federal Railroad Administration’s Szabo said Friday at the Golden Spike Seminar at Valparaiso University. “The Indiana Gateway going through Porter there is some of the most congested track in the nation from a freight standpoint, and virtually every passenger train that flows eastward out of Chicago has to go through there.”

Amtrak, Norfolk Southern and the Illinois Department of Transportation are close to an agreement on building a flyover for Metra trains at Englewood and then the focus will be on Porter Junction, Szabo said.

Szabo, a former mayor of Riverdale, was the keynote speaker at the second day of the Golden Spike Seminar, which is hosted annually by the Indiana High Speed Rail Association to promote passenger rail development in the state.

The Englewood crossing project landed $133 million in money from the Obama administration’s high-speed rail program early last year. Another $71.4 million was awarded to the Indiana Gateway project, which will involve building new sidings in the area of the Porter Junction as well as other improvements.

Altogether, tracks and stations used by Amtrak for Chicago-to-Michigan routes are getting $561 million in high-speed rail funds. With the help of the $196 million of that granted just last week, trains will be able to operate at 110 mph on the bulk of the route from Chicago to Detroit when all the projects are done. That will shave more than a half-hour off the trip.

Amtrak is focusing first on negotiations with railroad Norfolk Southern Corp. to cut down on delays at Chicago’s Englewood crossing and then will move on to completing negotiations for improving Porter Junction, Amtrak spokesman Mark Magliari said.

Magliari spoke in the morning at the Golden Spike Seminar, where he touted 18 straight months of ridership increases on Amtrak and also talked about the Englewood and Porter Junction projects.

“The most recent meetings have been productive,” Magliari said. “We need to get an Englewood deal done, and then we’ll move down to Porter Junction and get a deal done there.”

Construction work on Englewood will begin later this year and work on Porter Junction could begin later this year or next, Magliari said.

Up to 90 freight and 14 Amtrak trains per day pass through Porter Junction, a spider web of tracks on the border of Chesterton and the town of Porter. On a typical day at Englewood, 78 Metra trains, 46 Norfolk Southern trains and 14 Amtrak trains cross paths.

The largest part of the Englewood project is construction of a three-track flyover bridge to take the Metra Rock Island Line over the other tracks there, said Chuck Allen, of Chicago’s CREATE program to relieve rail congestion.

At the Porter Junction, new sidings will cut down on wait times for both Amtrak and freight trains waiting to get through the crossing.

Source: http://www.nwitimes.com/business/local/article_fd9e6c08-2435-5700-b8bc-1a0195c0d78a.html

From The Lansing State Journal

High-speed rail projects that will allow passenger trains traveling between Chicago and Detroit to reach speeds of 110 mph along some stretches of track and shorten travel time by 30 minutes also will result in about 1,000 construction jobs and help push Michigan’s economy forward, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday.

Members of Michigan’s congressional delegation, Mayor Dave Bing and Gov. Rick Snyder joined LaHood at an Amtrak station in Detroit, where he announced about $200 million in federal funds for the state.

The money is part of about $400 million being spent on high-speed rail service in the Midwest. It includes $196.5 million for track rehabilitation and upgrades to signals along the 235-mile route between Detroit and Chicago. Another $2.8 million will be used for planning of a new station in Ann Arbor.

“This is a big deal,” LaHood said. “America’s ready for high-speed rail. Nothing can stand in the way of it. We’re going to create a huge economic corridor between Chicago and Detroit and beyond.”

The federal government has awarded $2 billion to 15 states and Amtrak for 22 high-speed intercity passenger rail projects as President Barack Obama has sought to make creation of a national network of high-speed trains a signature project of his administration. He has said he wants to make fast trains accessible to 80 percent of Americans within 25 years.

Midwest upgrades

In the Midwest, the line from Chicago to St. Louis also will be upgraded, and trains will be able to reach high speeds on 220 miles of track between Dwight, Ill., and Joliet, Ill.

The line eventually could stretch from Detroit into Canada, said LaHood, adding that the government also is buying new passenger cars.

LaHood praised Bing’s leadership and Snyder for his support of the project. Bing is a Democrat, and Snyder is a Republican.

“There are no Republican or Democrat bridges. There are no Republican or Democratic roads,” LaHood said. “Transportation has always been bipartisan.”

The money became available after Florida’s governor rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for high-speed trains between Tampa and Orlando over concerns about long-term operating costs. Other states then entered bids for Florida’s money.

Michigan already has received more than $161 million for high-speed rail and $40 million for Amtrak stations in Troy, Battle Creek and Dearborn.

“This occasion, a few years ago, none of us could have dreamed of,” Bing said. “Thanks, Washington, D.C., for believing in Detroit.”

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow said the funding and projects are about creating jobs and “a system that is going to put people to work.”

Michigan has had one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates for years.

‘Piling’ on debt

But state Rep. Tom McMillin criticized the federal award to Michigan.

“If President Obama and Congress insist on piling more debt on our kids and grandkids, they should at least let us decide how to spend it,” said McMillin, a Republican from Rochester Hills. “We need to fill potholes and improve roads, not shave 50 minutes off a train ride from Detroit to Chicago.”

Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20110510/NEWS01/105100318/High-speed-rail-project-add-about-1-000-jobs-Michigan?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE