New Funding for Amtrak Downeaster

The federal government will fund $20.8 million towards track improvements on shared Downeaster and MBTA railroad tracks in northern Massachusetts in order to improve on-time reliability for the Portland-to-Boston Amtrak service and for Massachusetts commuter rail services.

Here's a map of where the upgrades will take place (in red) in the context of the rest of the Downeaster route (in blue):

View Downeaster Track improvements in a larger map

If you've ridden the Downeaster before, you may have noticed the train slow down or stop altogether on this section, which sees a lot of train traffic. These upgrades represent another step towards the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority's goal to reduce travel times between Portland and Boston to 2 hours - the time it takes to drive - and add enough track capacity to allow for six daily round trips (up from the current five).

Downeaster extension to Freeport, Brunswick funded; work to begin immediately

The White House press office has announced the projects that will receive funding for high-speed and intercity passenger rail projects through the stimulus program. Here's the rundown for the Northeast - Maine will receive $35 million to extend the Downeaster north to Brunswick, with an intermediate stop in Freeport, on rehabilitated tracks.

According to this schedule, the work should be finished by the spring of 2012.

Maine had also put in a separate request to speed travel times on the existing Portland-to-Boston route, as well as several other rail upgrades in other parts of the state, but it now seems unlikely that those projects would be funded from the stimulus.

Elsewhere, the feds will give Florida $1.25 billion to initiate a fast train between Orlando and Tampa, and $2.3 billion to get California's ambitious bullet train network off the ground.

Tom Bell has a story about the grant, with local reactions in Brunswick, in today's Press Herald.