» Senate High Speed Rail Task Force Recommendations

The following are a summary of the 25 recommendations contained in the study report.

• Implement the Empire Corridor Action Program and achieve service and reliability benefits as quickly as the infrastructure can be provided, the equipment made available, and the institutional arrangements can be made with the owners and operators.
  

• Establish an Empire Corridor Owners and Operators Service Improvement Group to meet monthly to “red flag” service problems and customer complaints and implement procedural, administrative and management changes that immediately result in service improvements.

• Establish an “Empire Corridor Demonstration Project” as a temporary entity to negotiate, reach agreements ad establish other arrangements.

• Commit to a high level of investment in intercity passenger rail in financial partnership with federal, state, local and private stakeholders, commensurate with increased state control and responsibility for the Empire Corridor.

• Seek improvements in Amtrak intercity service in the Empire Corridor.

• Develop the rail corridor goals and performance objectives in consultation with NYSDOT and railroad owners and operators.

• Amend the Statewide Transportation Master Plan scheduled for release in early 2006 to accommodate the vision and corridor-based rail improvements identified in this report.

• Change state policy used to allocate funds among modes to sustain a statewide integrated rail network, based on an independent study of costs, benefits, and efficiency of moving people and goods in New York State’s multimodal corridors.

• Provide unity of ownership and operations from the Capital District to New York City through an existing or new state entity.

• Negotiate the purchase of CSXT right-of-wayand transfer Amtrak right-of-way, stations and maintenance facilities from Schenectady to Penn Station.

• Consider the creation of a New York State Rail Authority.

• New York State should secure the right to run trains operating on the Empire Corridor thorough to points on the Northeast Corridor, and to receive federal grants to bring the Capital District to New York City Corridor into a “state of good repair”.

• Create and implement a public-private partnership agreement with the owners and operators in the Capital District to Buffalo/Niagara Falls corridor, resulting in benefits for both freight and passenger services.

• Develop the specifications and initiate the procurement of a “New York State Car” that will meet future requirements of the Empire Corridor, access to New York terminals, and operations on the Long Island Railroad and the Northeast Corridor.

• Develop and initiate a “Multimodal Centers” program along the Empire Corridor with Albany-Rensselaer as the Demonstration “Hub” station.

• Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of a recommendation on the inclusion of the NYS Empire Corridor in the Northeast Corridor.

• Provide Empire Corridor train through-run service to points on the Long Island Railroad at New York’s Penn Station.

• Provide Empire Corridor trains sufficient capacity (train slots) and presence at Penn Station (“Moynihan Station”) and Grand Central Terminal to meet future demand.

• Conduct a New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) study, with participation by the rail owners and operators, on the costs and benefits of electrification of the Empire Corridor from New York to Albany with possible extension to western New York.

• Provide a federal or multi-state entity to continue to be responsible for off-corridor interstate and international trains as they exist today.

• Expand Metro North service to the Capital District by 2012, or sooner, based on a new Capital District to New York City operations plan and resolution of any legal, MTA district and funding issues.

• Initiate strategic planning for a new high speed fixed-guideway system on a new route with public and private sector participation.

• Reserve alternative passenger routes in the Rochester to Buffalo area.

• Reserve future right-of-way for a new high speed fixed-guideway system within the New York State Thruway and on a new Hudson River crossing.

• Consider implementation of a new high speed fixed-guideway system on a new route by a public-private consortium, where the state contributes the right-a-way and the private sector designs, builds, operates, maintains, and finances the project.