The Northeast and MidAtlantic States Major Investors in Intercity Passenger Rail

What Are the States Doing To Support Intercity Passenger Rail?

Northeast Corridor

• New Jersey and New York are investing in life/safety and tunnel improvements in Pennsylvania Station New York, while all states on the NEC are improving the stations, platforms and parking garages that serve intercity service.
   
• Track improvement, rail yard and bridge projects in such states as Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Maryland are improving the overall quality of the infrastructure, while also supporting the growth of commuter rail services in a manner to mitigate bottlenecks among intercity, commuter and freight train movements.
   
• New Jersey Transit (NJT), which operates commuter service on Amtrak-owned portions of the NEC, has a Joint Benefits Agreement with Amtrak under which it makes specific matching investments each year in projects such as track, signals, substations, bridges and other infrastructure elements that benefit each party.
   
• Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York own portions of the NEC that serve intercity and commuter trains. These states – not Amtrak – bear the primary responsibility for maintaining and improving the tracks, stations, signal and power systems, bridges, grade crossings, yards and terminals on these portions of the regional network. Amtrak compensates these states for use of their rights-of-way in a manner consistent with payments to Amtrak for use of its right-of-way. In Connecticut and New York, the Metro-North and Long Island commuter railroads of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) assumed approximately $350 million between 1992-2001 in operations support of NEC infrastructure used by intercity passenger rail service.
   
• States’ payments to Amtrak for commuter trains operating on Amtrak-owned portions of the NEC reflect a share of expenses such as maintenance of way and transportation services (power, signals, dispatching) relative to the use of the infrastructure. Some “shared costs” are not captured in any formal services agreements. For example, NJT maintains all NEC train stations in New Jersey, and it makes its Atlantic City right-of-way available to Amtrak special trains at no cost. When Amtrak needs additional equipment for peak service in Maryland, it is able to obtain equipment at nominal costs from the Maryland Transit Administration.

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