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APTA Members Receive Safety, Security Grants

FRA Awards $13.8 Million

Seven APTA members recently received nine FRA safety upgrade grants totaling $13.8 million, part of $25 million in Fiscal Year 2016 grants to 23 projects in 14 states and the District of Columbia to increase safety at railroad crossings, train stations and tracks.

FRA’s Railroad Safety Infrastructure Improvement Grants fund safety improvements to railroad infrastructure, including the acquisition, improvement or rehabilitation of intermodal facilities; improvements to track, bridges, railyards and tunnels; upgrades to railroad crossings; and separation of railroad crossings and roads.

“It is vitally important that we invest in safety as rail continues to play an increasingly larger role in this country, transporting tons of freight and millions of passengers each day,” said DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx in announcing the grants. “These grants will help address some of the improvements that are crucial to ensuring safe, reliable and efficient railroad networks.”

APTA members received the following grants:

* New York State DOT: $5.15 million in three grants—$1.34 million to add highway traffic signal preemption to seven grade crossings on MTA Metro-North Railroad’s ­Harlem and Port Jervis lines; $1.9 million to install upgrades to one Metro-North and two Long Island Rail Road grade crossings; and $1.91 million to install CCTV cameras to record grade crossing movements at 43 grade crossings within Metro-North territory;

* Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District: $2.69 million to add two platform access points at the station in East Chicago, IN, to distribute passengers along the full length of the train to reduce congestion and improve operations;

* Amtrak: $2.35 million to provide a new emergency egress stairway and fire suppression system at Washington (DC) Union Station;

* Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA): $1.61 million to construct a new pedestrian underpass and two new rail bridges at the Lawndale Station in Philadelphia, along with other improvements such as a high-level platform, signage, catenary and ADA-related improvements;

* Caltrain (Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board): $1.06 million to install new safety measures at 10 grade crossings along the commuter rail line in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco counties;

* Maryland DOT: $700,000 to improve four sequential, private grade crossings along an 1.87-mile freight rail line in a busy industrial area northeast of Baltimore; and

* Dallas Area Rapid Transit: $269,600 to provide safety improvements at 10 passenger rail stations.

FRA selected the grant recipients from 40 applications that requested $67.5 million. To see the full list, click here.

FEMA Awards $87 Million

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently awarded 32 grants totaling $87 million in the Fiscal Year 2016 Transit Security Grant Program.

FEMA awards the grants to support the creation of sustainable, risk-based efforts to protect critical surface transportation infrastructure and the traveling public from acts of terrorism, major disasters and other emergencies. The top 12 grants and recipients follow:

The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority received the largest individual grant, almost $22.5 million, followed by $11.5 million for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, $11.3 million for New Jersey Transit Corporation, $6.7 million for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and $5.6 million for the Chicago Transit Authority.

The Maryland Transit Administration in Baltimore received $4.9 million; San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, $4.8 million; Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, $4 million; Chicago’s Metra, $3.7 million; Portland’s Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Oregon, $2.9 million; ­Connecticut DOT, $2 million; and Los Angeles Metro, $1.1 million.

To see the complete list, click here.

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