The $450 million for the Philadelphia-to-New-York stretch will pay for signal and track upgrages, improved power substations and overhead wire systems to increase capacity and boost speeds on a 24-mile section between Morrisville, Pa., and New Bunswick, N.J.
The changes would allow Acela Express trains to go as fast as 160 miles per hour on that stretch, up from the current top speed of 135 miles per hour. That would surpass the 150 mile-per-hour top speed that Acela trains now reach on a small section of the corridor between New York and Boston.
The $450 million project, which will also improve reliability for non-Acela trains and reconfigure track switches at the western entrance to New York's Penn Station to ease congestion there, is slated to be completed by September 2017, Amtrak said.
Amtrak had applied for $1.3 billion of the spurned Florida high-speed rail money. It did not get funding sought for several key elements of its proposed "Gateway Project" to increase capacity and reliability into New York City, including a new bridge to replace the century-old Portal Bridge across the Hackensack River.
With its Gateway Project, Amtrak this year took the lead in planning for new tunnels and bridgework into New York City, after Gov. Christie withdrew New Jersey's support and funding for new tunnels under the Hudson.
Although the money awarded Monday is not part of the proposed Gateway project, it "most definitely supports Gateway," said Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm.
The other Northeast Corridor awards:
Maryland - $22 million for engineering and environmental work in preparation for the replacement of a century-old bridge over the Susquehanna River.
New York – $295 million for a bypass around a busy choke-point in Queens for trains approaching and departing Manhattan.
