Federal and local officials to execute the Project Kickoff Agreement with the State of Maryland and to celebrate the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the Baltimore-DC Building and Construction Trades Council for the first phase of the Baltimore & Potomac (B&P) Tunnel Replacement Program in Baltimore.
“Replacing this Civil War-era B&P tunnel will nearly triple train capacity on this critical section of the Northeast Corridor for the nine million annual Amtrak and MARC customers who rely on this vital connection,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner. “As we work with Maryland and our labor partners to deliver the new Frederick Douglass Tunnel, we are grateful for essential funding that the Biden Administration has designated for this project, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the strong support of our many federal, state and local partners.”
Maryland intends to commit $450 million in state funding to support this major infrastructure project, which includes the construction of the new Frederick Douglass Tunnel. These funds, combined with Amtrak’s intended commitment of approximately $750 million, put the project closer to achieving full funding under the Federal Railroad Administration’s Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.
Once work is complete, service reliability, capacity and speed will increase from 30 mph to up to 110 mph, saving commuters time on what is currently the largest rail bottleneck between Washington, D.C. and New Jersey.
