Northeast Corridor Commission launches CONNECT NEC 2037 C37
Image credit: Northeast Corridor Commission
The Northeast Corridor Commission has issued CONNECT NEC 2037 (C37), which identifies long-term service objectives and associated capital investments over the next 15 years along the 457-mile NEC (Northeast Corridor). C37 is an update to C35, completed in 2021, which assessed NEC-wide rail service and state-of-good-repair goals and the infrastructure investments necessary to meet them.
The CONNECT NEC program is a planning process that integrates investments across four infrastructure owners (Amtrak, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority/MBTA, Connecticut Department of Transportation, and MTA Metro-North Railroad) and nine passenger rail operators (Amtrak, MBTA, CTrail, MTA Metro-North Railroad, MTA Long Island Rail Road/LIRR, New Jersey Transit, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Maryland Area Regional Commuter/MARC and Virginia Railway Express).
The $16.4 billion in Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grants recently awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will help advance C37 and serve as a down payment to start rebuilding the NEC.
C37 is slated to address aging infrastructure, create capacity for additional service, and build a resilient railroad network for the future. The total cost to implement C37 is estimated to be $135 billion in 2023 dollars or, accounting for inflation, $175 billion in year-of-expenditure dollars, according to the Commission. Of that amount, approximately 40% is funded through existing or expected federal, state and local sources, leaving a funding gap of about $100 billion for the full C37.
Source: Northeast Corridor Commission
