2010 SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop September 22, 2010 Jacksonville, Florida George C. Xu, Ph.D. Executive Manager, Planning and Research State Rail and Marine Office Paula Hammond Secretary of Transportation Steve Reinmuth Chief of Staff

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida Operating $199 million from 1994 through 2008 $29.1 million budgeted from 2009 to 2011 Capital $132 million spent from 1994 through 2008 $139 million projected from 2008 through 2013 Nearly $1.0 billion in capital and operating funds has been invested in high-speed intercity passenger rail in the Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor since Washington State alone has invested over $331 million in support of high-speed passenger rail.

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida February 17, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which contained $8 billion of federal funding for High-Speed Rail. First major federal investment in High-Speed Passenger Rail outside the North East corridor. Applicants were restricted to state transportation departments and Amtrak. The Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor (PNWRC) is one of the 11 federally designated high-speed rail corridors.

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida Washington applied for nearly $1.3 billion. On January 27, Washington State was notified that they had been awarded $590 million from the ARRA High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program. In the FRA announcement they have said that this will:  Add two additional daily round trips between Seattle and Portland, for a total of six.  Reduce travel time by at least 5 percent.  Increase on-time performance from 62 to 88 percent.

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida Washington State High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Proposed ARRA Projects 1.Tacoma – D to M Street Connection 2.Tacoma – Point Defiance Bypass 3.Vancouver – Yard Bypass Track 4.Cascades Corridor Reliability Upgrades – South 5.Everett – Storage Track – WA 6.Amtrak Cascades® New Train Set 7.Kelso Martin’s Bluff – New Siding 8.Kelso Martin’s Bluff – Toteff Siding Extension 9.Kelso Martin’s Bluff – Kelso to Longview Jct. 10.Seattle – King Street Station Track Upgrades 11.Advanced Signal System

 Set the Strategic Directions of Public Investment  Legislative Priorities  Strategic Rail Corridors  Enhance Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Investment  Cost Benefit Analysis  Economic Impact Assessment  Ensure Performance  Determine Performance Measures  Set Performance Goals  Reach Contractual Agreement  Evaluate Performance 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

Under ESHB 1094, the Washington State Legislature required Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to evaluate rail investment using the following priorities:  Economic, safety, or environmental advantages of freight movement by rail compared to alternative modes;  Self-sustaining economic development that creates family-wage jobs;  Preservation of transportation corridors that would otherwise be lost;  Increased access to efficient and cost-effective transport to market for Washington’s agricultural and industrial products;  Better integration and cooperation within the regional, national, and international systems of freight distribution; and  Mitigation of impacts of increased rail traffic on communities. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 RCW 47.06A.020 requires that the Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board designate strategic freight corridors within Washington State and update the designated strategic corridors not less than every two years.  “Strategic Freight Corridors” (RCW 47.06A.010) means a transportation corridor of great economic importance within an integrated freight system that:  Serves international and domestic interstate and intrastate trade.  Enhances the state’s competitive position through regional and global gateways.  Carries freight tonnages of at least:  Four million gross tons annually on state highways, city streets, and county roads.  Five million gross tons annually on rail roads.  Two and one-half million net tons on waterways. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 Set the Strategic Directions of Public Investment  Legislative Priorities  Strategic Freight Corridors  Enhance Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Investment  Cost Benefit Analysis  Economic Impact Assessment  Ensure Performance  Determine Performance Measures  Set Performance Goals  Reach Contractual Agreement 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 Under ESHB 1094, the Washington State Legislature required Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to develop and implement the benefit/impact evaluation methodology to evaluate rail investment programs and projects.  The benefit/impact evaluation method is developed using the legislative specified priorities. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida Anticipated Private Benefits  Economic competitiveness  Cost reductions  Improved assets  Service improvements Anticipated Public Benefits  Congestion mitigation  Enhanced trade and economic development  Improved air quality  Improved land use  Enhanced public safety  Enhanced public security  Reduction in public expenditures  Community effects Source: American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) State Rail Planning Guidebook September 2009

 Private benefit is a benefit accrued to a person or private entity, other than Amtrak, that directly improves the economic and competitive condition of that person or entity through improved assets, cost reductions, service improvements, or any other means as defined by the Secretary.  Broad definition of “ Public Benefits ” include both private benefits and benefits defined as above. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

Benefits:  Transportation Benefits (improve capacity and reliability, travelers’ time saving, reduction in highway congestion, shipper’s savings, reduction in highway use, reducing auto delay at grade crossing, etc.)  Economic Benefits (jobs created, tax revenues, business incomes)  External Impacts (GHG reduction and safety improvement) 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

Costs:  Capital investment.  Cost of maintaining project work during estimation period.  Cost of maintaining equipment during estimation period.  Public costs vs. private costs – leverage. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

Benefit Values:  WSDOT economists update benefit values periodically to ensure quick and high quality CBAs are performed upon requests from policy makers or required by routine program needs. Cost Indices:  WSDOT developed rail cost inflation indices system to gauge project costs. Such indices are updated quarterly. Discount Rate:  WSDOT uses a discount rate of 4% to convert future benefits and costs into present value. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 Qualitative assessment of how a project fits with legislative priorities.  Project benefit weighted by legislative priorities.  Guidance for evaluators for scoring.  Summary of scores by priority. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 A project management matrix is developed to evaluate likelihood of success of a project when invested.  Project management assessment.  Prompts evaluation of project readiness.  Evaluates the current cost, scope, and schedule status. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 The User Benefit Levels Matrix is intended to help determine who is benefiting from the project and at what level. The matrix is to be completed giving a percentage that represents the amount of benefit for each user for each measure. The percentage of benefits are then added for each user and divided by the number of measures used providing an overall project benefit for each user.  Different benefits/measures.  Distributional impacts on users. 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

 Set the Strategic Directions of Public Investment  Legislative Priorities  Strategic Freight Corridors  Enhance Efficiency and Effectiveness of Public Investment  Cost Benefit Analysis  Economic Impact Assessment  Ensure Performance  Determine Performance Measures  Set Performance Goals  Reach Contractual Agreement 22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida

22 September SCORT/TRB Rail Capacity Workshop – Jacksonville, Florida Agreement expected to lead to improved Amtrak Cascades service WSDOT and BNSF sign agreement to move Recovery Act rail projects forward OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and BNSF Railway today signed an agreement that ultimately will result in more frequent and more reliable Amtrak Cascades service between Seattle and Portland. Today’s “Memorandum of Agreement” between WSDOT and BNSF clears the way for the state to begin initial work this fall using some of the $590 million in federal grants awarded to Washington in January. This money is part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) high-speed rail grants, administered by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). The agreement sets the framework for the two organizations to deliver rail-improvement projects that achieve reliability and on-time performance goals for both passenger and freight rail service. This is important on rail lines shared by these two types of rail services. With these ARRA funds, the goal is to add two additional Amtrak Cascades daily round trips between Seattle and Portland, for a total of six. The improvements are also intended to reduce travel times, as well as improve average on-time performance from the line’s current 62 percent to more than 80 percent. The work will increase rail-corridor capacity and relieve main line rail congestion by building bypass tracks and making multiple upgrades to existing track.

For more information Please contact: State Rail and Marine Office