State gets $354 million in federal funds for high-speed Acela, plus rail line upgrades in Queens

Henrick Karoliszyn and Richard Sisk New York Daily News 05/09/2011 18:13

Federal money will unsnarl the "Harold Interlocking" at the Sunnyside Yard, where Amtrak, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit have crisscrossed for more than 50 years.

New York and Amtrak eagerly snagged a healthy slice of the $2.4 billion high-speed rail pie served up Monday - cash some conservative governors had turned down.

The money slated for the New York area will be used to crank up the Acela to 160 mph and unsnarl a decades-old commuter bottleneck in Queens.

Under the national grants unveiled at Penn Station by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, New York State will pocket $354million, while $450 million was set aside for Amtrak operations in the region.

LaHood, who seethed as the GOP governors of Florida, Wisconsin and Ohio turned down rail funding, happily handed out their cash to states that wanted a cut.

"Who says America is not ready for high-speed rail?" LaHood said.

Gov. Cuomo, who had lobbied LaHood for the rail money, crowed that the grants would play a "significant factor in ushering our economy and transportation system into the 21st century."

He said an expanded high-speed rail system would "create jobs."

The Amtrak grants would allow the nation's rail company to upgrade tracks and signals in the area, replace sagging power lines, buy new cars and boost the Acela from 135 mph to 160 mph along major sections of the Boston-Washington corridor.