Amtrak to spend $50M in federal funds in NW states
Sunday, April 12, 2009 2:11 AM PDT
PORTLAND (AP) — In two small Oregon towns, where passenger trains running on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight line rumble by, $277,000 in federal stimulus money will be spent to upgrade the stations and bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
A wheelchair lift will be installed in Klamath Falls, Amtrak says, and a ramp and sidewalk will be built to connect a parking area with a new platform in Chemult.
Further up the line, Amtrak will spend more than $53,000 in Vancouver, Wash., on similar upgrades, and about $260,000 will go toward projects at five other Washington stations to bring them within compliance with federal regulations.
In all, Amtrak plans to spend $50 million in federal stimulus funds in the two Pacific Northwest states, where more than 2 million passengers climbed aboard Amtrak trains on the Coast Starlight, Cascade and Empire Builder lines last year.
The money also will go toward providing wireless access to field workers, infrastructure repairs and two new buildings in Seattle.
The buildings will cost Amtrak roughly $35 million and are the priciest of the projects planned in the two states. They are to replace buildings at Amtrak’s Seattle King Street Maintenance Facility and they will be used for maintenance, employee welfare and storage.
‘‘In Amtrak-land, what we’re about to do in Seattle is significant,’’ said Jonathan Hutchison, Amtrak’s director of government affairs in the West. ‘‘That’s our big ticket, stimulus-funded project.’’
The spending in Washington and Oregon is part of $1.3 billion pot set aside for Amtrak projects in the $787 billion federal economic stimulus package, which is meant to jump-start the economy, put the jobless back to work.
The Amtrak projects are expected to create 6,000 jobs, said Vernae Graham, Amtrak spokeswoman in Oakland, Calif. But it is not yet certain how many jobs projects in the Northwest will create, she said.
Amtrak’s plans for the Northwest, however, aren’t nearly as big nor as expensive as those planned in the Northeast, where rider-ship is significantly higher and about $105 million will be spent there to replace a 102-year-old Connecticut bridge alone.
None of the money will go toward bridge repair in Washington and Oregon, Hutchison said, but the money will be used in both state to secure some passenger rails and repair other parts of the infrastructure.
He did not provide further details on infrastructure projects but said many of the repairs are long overdue.
‘‘We have a huge backlog we need to work through to put our house in order and to maximize efficiency of our improvements,’’ he said.
The money will roughly double the size of Amtrak’s capital investment program over two years, said Vice President Joe Biden, an Amtrak advocate who commuted between Washington and Wilmington, Del., by train when he was senator.
