Friday, August 6, 2010

Federal Railroad Administration Announces High-Speed Rail Grants. Colorado has received $400,000 and Vermont $500,000 under the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program grant program funded from fiscal year 2009 appropriations. Colorado will use its funds to develop a state rail plan, a prerequisite for receiving additional HSIPR intercity passenger rail funding. Vermont will conduct a study of a proposed rerouting of Amtrak’s Ethan Allen service between Rutland, VT, and Albany, NY, which would result in additional cities receiving rail service. FRA has now released more than $183 million for the HSIPR program, the significant portion of which comes from the Obama Administration’s unprecedented $8 billion down payment for the creation of a national network of interconnected high-speed rail corridors in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Media Contact: Rob Kulat 202-493-6024.

BTS Releases Report on the Effects of the February 2010 Snowstorms on Airline Performance. The Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) today released a special report, Effects of the February 2010 Snowstorms on Airline Performance , describing how several February snowstorms in the Northeast, Midwest, and South¬east disrupted air travel at airports across the Unit¬ed States. In February, more than 20,000 flights, or 4.2 percent of all flights scheduled during the month, were canceled due to weather, the highest weather cancellation rate for any month since BTS began collecting data on the extent and causes of cancellations in June 2003. The report can be found at http://www.bts.gov/publications/special_reports_and_issue_briefs/ . Contact Dave Smallen: 202-366-5568.

FHWA Has $2 Million Available to Boost Deployment of Safety Technologies. The Federal Highway Administration is seeking solicitations from public agencies in need of money to pay for safety and performance evaluations of innovative technologies. Public agencies need these evaluations to make informed highway planning decisions before being able to adopt new technologies. The $2 million from the Highways for LIFE Technology Partnerships Program will fund up to eight performance evaluations. These evaluations will provide comprehensive information on the chosen technologies to help highway agencies around the country adopt these new safety innovations. Applications are due October 6, 2010. For more information on the Highways for LIFE initiative, the Technology Partnerships Program and the requirements for this solicitation, please see http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/tech.cfm . Contact: Kelly Hanahan, (202)366-0877.