A 148-year-old tunnel is the biggest rail bottleneck between D.C. and New Jersey. Here's the new pla

Source: Washington Post

A 148-year-old tunnel is the biggest rail bottleneck between D.C. and New Jersey. Here’s the new plan to replace it.

The passenger railroad is moving forward to replace the B&P Tunnel in West Baltimore, securing Maryland’s political backing but still lacking a financing plan

By Luz Lazo
June 18, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. EDT

A plan to replace the decrepit Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel in Maryland, which officials say is needed for safety reasons and to meet East Coast passenger and commercial rail needs, is moving forward after years of delays.

Amtrak and Maryland announced an agreement Friday on a $4 billion plan to build a replacement in the next decade. The railroad is completing the design and negotiating property acquisitions, while promising the tunnel will carry electric-powered trains to reduce environmental impacts on Baltimore neighborhoods along the new route.

The 148-year-old tunnel under West Baltimore is a major bottleneck for Amtrak, Maryland’s MARC commuter trains and commercial rail traffic that moves through the Northeast Corridor. The announcement comes as the nation debates funding for aging infrastructure amid new priorities in Washington that laud rail and alternate modes of transportation. Funding for the Baltimore project remains uncertain.

Trains slow to a crawling 30 mph in the two-track, 1.4-mile tunnel between Baltimore’s Penn Station and points south, creating delays up and down the corridor. The tunnel is the biggest chokepoint between Washington and New Jersey.

Amtrak said it plans to replace the post-Civil War-era tunnel with single-track twin tunnels that would arc about a half-mile north of the existing tunnel. Trains would travel up to 100 mph.

The proposal is a scaled-down version of a plan approved four years ago by the Federal Railroad Administration that called for four single-track tunnel tubes. ...

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/06/18/amtrak-maryland-baltimore-rail-tunnel/