SEPTA Awarded $10 Million Grant for West Trenton Line Project

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick and representatives from SEPTA and CSX announced Wednesday afternoon the awarding of a $10 million federal grant that will help fund a $38 million project that will separate the tracks shared by the passenger and freight trains between the Woodbourne and Yardley stations.

According to SEPTA Board Chairman Pasquale Deon, the construction of an additional, four-mile track will help alleviate schedule and rail traffic constraints as capacity increases on the West Trenton line.

"This project is not only critical to SEPTA and CSX, but to the region as a whole," said Deon. "This will significantly enhance a portion of the rail corridor that is vital to our economy - ensuring that commuters have reliable transportation to get to-and-from work, and that businesses can send and receive goods efficiently and effectively."

Awarded by the Department of Transportation, the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER V) grant will go towards the separation of freight and passenger routes on SEPTA’s West Trenton Regional Rail Line. Currently, the six-mile stretch of CSX-owned line between Middletown and West Trenton, N.J. is a choke-point for transportation in the region, featuring both SEPTA and freight trains daily.

“The federal funds awarded to this project will allow SEPTA to construct its own stretch of track in the area, separating the two lines and allowing both SEPTA and CSX to improve their service,” continued Fitzpatrick. “The project benefits travelers, businesses, and the region by increasing connectivity and allowing for station upgrades.”

According to SEPTA Chief Engineer and Deputy General Manager Jeffrey Knueppel, the grant request was originally $18 million. Even though the award is a little less than originally planned, Knueppel says the $10 million will go a long way to getting the project completed. 

The cost of the $38 million construction has been split between SEPTA and CSX, with the freight company contributing $10 million and SEPTA chipping in $28 million. If the full, $18 million request had been granted, it would have been split $5 million for CSX and $13 million for SEPTA, Knueppel said. With the actual $10 million award, the split will need to be reconfigured.

The new track will be placed on the same roadbed where an older track previously sat, Knueppel said.

"The track was pulled up in 1960," said Knueppel. "It's great that we will be able to restore some of it. We already started the design work, and we are just about ready to take it to construction."

A project timetable has not been released, nor have any bid requests to contractors, but Knueppel predicted the upgrade of the six-mile stretch of track, plus ADA improvements to the Yardley and West Trenton stations to make them more handi-capped accessible, would take about nine months to a year to complete.

Knueppel also said that the separation of the lines has to be completed by Dec. 31, 2015 in order to comply with positive train control standards that were enacted in 2008. SEPTA and CSX use different systems, which would cause a compliance problem if the two companies continued to share the track.