Oregon gets $1.5M to improve rail service


Oregon landed $1.5 million of the $2 billion for high-speed rail announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

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Oregon landed $1.5 million of the $2 billion for high-speed rail announced Monday by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

While the bulk of the money went toward projects to speed up train travel in the Northeast and Midwest, Oregon landed $1.5 million to analyze overnight parking tracks for passenger trains in Eugene, the southern end of the Pacific Northwest Corridor, with an eye toward adding new capacity for increased passenger and freight rail service.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement over the weekend that Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Portland developer John Russell will lead what the Eugene Register-Guard calls a “high-level advisory group charged with writing a plan for Oregon’s 105-mile segment of the 466-mile Amtrak Cascades line.”

Read more at Sustainable Business Oregon.

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