OREGON CITY, Ore. — Amtrak has pledged to contribute $750,000 to a passing siding project to improve passenger train reliability south of Portland, Ore., if the Oregon Department of Transportation is successful in securing a federal grant.
The state has requested $5 million in federal funds through a U.S. Department of Transportation “Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development” (BUILD) grant for the $7.83 million project. Oregon would provide about $1.6 million from the legislature’s “Connect Oregon” appropriation to rebuild and add signals, converting former industrial trackage into a passing track in the middle of what is now a 7-mile stretch of busy single track on Union Pacific’s Brooklyn Subdivision.
“The 5,000-foot siding would help reduce delays to both Coast Starlights and Amtrak Cascades,” Oregon Rail and Public Transit Division Rail Planner Bob Melbo tells Trains News Wire. “Given the current schedules, if a train is late, one must wait at existing passing tracks at Clackamas to the north or Coalca to the south.” Any UP freight already occupying one of those sidings could further exacerbate the delay.
Melbo says the industrial spur was never utilized as a passing track when former railroad owner Southern Pacific introduced Centralized Traffic Control to the Brooklyn Sub in the 1950s, but its legacy footprint makes installation of a modern siding more cost effective than building one elsewhere.
Oregon’s BUILD request reviewed by Trains News Wire pegs “signal implementation” at $1.5 million, so Amtrak’s $750,000 contribution represents the entire match for that. The remainder of the expense involves labor and grading costs, plus installation of power switches, switch heaters, rails, ties, and ballast.
A decision on grant recipients is expected to be made by the U.S. DOT later this year.
