![]() The Utah Department of Transportation had applied for a $500,000 grant to study how best to connect Salt Lake City to Las Vegas by passenger rail, but the application was denied. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Amtrak riders board a train in Grand Junction, Colo., in 2007. Gleason added after the announcement Friday that UDOT is “always looking for transportation solutions to address growth and help people get where they’re going safely and conveniently.” UTA on Friday concurred with UDOT’s statement, a spokesperson said. “I like the concept of putting this region, this service area, right in the middle of the discussion for a larger intercity presence,” Utah Transit Authority executive director Jay Fox said at the time, “which will ultimately give people more opportunities to take modes of transportation that are not available to them right now.” The Utah Transit Authority last month hosted a hopeful luncheon to reveal plans for the proposed Salt Lake City to Las Vegas and Boise passenger rail projects. ![]() “Policymakers missed the mark by not advocating for a more efficient use of land for our transportation needs - content to simply spend our money to add lane after lane of highway and road,” Haring wrote in an email. He also cited a lack of enthusiasm from policymakers - in Utah and the surrounding region - as a potential reason. ![]() “Officials have stressed the importance of local support playing an important role in their decision-making process,” Christensen wrote in an email, adding that Utah will need “a bottom-up, grassroots effort to build a coalition of communities in order to win over Utah’s congressional delegation, the Utah Legislature, and UDOT.”Ĭurtis Haring, executive director of the Utah Transit Riders Union, said the organization felt the funding rejection was disappointing but not surprising. But he feels Utah needs to “change its approach” if it expects to see federal support in the future. There will be an opportunity for UDOT to apply for grant funding again next year, Utah Rail Passengers Association executive director Mike Christensen said. And in Colorado, $500,000 in federal grant funding was awarded this week to a passenger rail project between Fort Collins and Pueblo, the Denver Post reported. In Nevada, plans for a potential Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles high-speed rail system received $3 billion in federal support this week, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Federal officials ultimately chose 69 projects to receive grant funding, according to a news release from the Federal Railroad Administration. The application was denied, the Federal Railroad Administration announced Friday.Īcross the country, about 90 such grant applications were submitted. (Utah Department of Transportation) UDOT applied for a $500,000 grant that would fund an exploratory look at rail service between Salt Lake City and Las Vegas.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |