Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express line soon will be extended so that it runs from New York City to Burlington, Vermont, thanks to a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The $10 million grant will be used to add an 11-mile extension to the line, which currently ends in Rutland, Vermont.
“Every week, there are communities from across the country that meet with the Federal Railroad Administration wanting, and needing, to expand passenger rail service,” Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah Feinberg said. “But many do not have the partnerships and leadership like Vermont does to move those projects from conception to reality. Passenger-rail service has been part of Burlington’s past, and with this grant, we are making it part of its future.”
The TIGER program consisted of 39 projects for a total award of approximately $500 million for 2015. The department reports that it received 627 applications last year that were deemed eligible. The TIGER program has funded projects like this one through seven rounds of funding since 2009 and has awarded approximately $4.6 billion over that time. The program has supported 381 projects since its launch.
“In this round of TIGER grants, we selected projects that focus on where the country’s transportation infrastructure needs to be in the future -- safer, more innovative and more targeted to open the floodgates of opportunity across America,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said.
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