Two Midwestern passenger rail projects were among 11 winners of Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair (SOGR) Program grants announced in August by the U.S. Department of Transportation  (U.S. DOT).

For the second year in a row, Illinois and Michigan have landed passenger rail-related RAISE grant awards.

Passenger rail-related projects in Illinois, Kansas and Michigan are among the winners of inaugural Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grants program, which is the former TIGER/BUILD grant program renamed and repurposed.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Nov. 19 announced nearly $1 billion worth of funding was awarded to 90 surface transportation infrastructure projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Fiscal Year 2021 RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments, for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact, a U.S. DOT press release said.

The final piece of the local funding puzzle for a second daily train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago fell into place on June 26 when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a transportation omnibus funding bill that includes the state’s share of non-federal money for the long-planned project.

Michigan was the Midwestern winner in the latest round of federal “State of Good Repair” grants for fiscal year 2020, announced Oct. 28 by the Federal Railroad Administration. The Michigan Department of Transportation won up to $15,570,327 for 11 projects to modify track curves between Ypsilanti to Jackson that, when completed, are expected to provide a 7-minute reduction in trip times on the Wolverine and improve operational reliability and grade crossing safety throughout the Detroit-Chicago corridor.

The multi-state effort to add a second daily train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, and Chicago just got another major boost from the federal government. The Federal Railroad Administration  announced  on Sept. 23, 2020, that the “TCMC” project – also known as the “Second Empire Builder” – has been awarded a $31.8 million Consolidated Railroad Infrastructure and Safety Improvement  (CRISI) grant for final design and construction.

The first of 88 new passenger cars will arrive in the Midwest in August to begin their testing phase. They should be in revenue service on state-supported routes in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin by the end of 2020, Illinois Department of Transportation officials said.

Illinois and Michigan won $19 million in the latest round of Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Program (SOGR) grants, announced in late May by the Federal Railroad Administration. Those grants were two of 12 awarded to projects in nine states, totaling more than $302 million.