Vermont transportation officials brief Senate on rail program priorities, Montreal study and bridge upgrades

Dan DeLazier, rail bureau director at the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans), gave the Senate Transportation Committee a roughly hour‑long briefing July 20 on the agency’s rail program, its budget priorities for the coming year and several ongoing projects, including a next‑phase study for service to Montreal.

Why it matters: VTrans told senators that rail carries a significant share of freight that would otherwise use highways, that some state‑owned bridges still fall short of the 286,000‑pound standard used for modern freight trains, and that competitive federal grants and intergovernmental cooperation will be needed to move several corridor projects toward construction.

DeLazier opened by describing Vermont’s daily freight flows and the role of two passenger routes. “On a normal day, we have between a 50 to 200 railcars that move in and out of Vermont every single day,” he said, adding that converting that freight to truck trips would add “about 6 to 800 additional trucks per day.” He said Vermont Rail Systems and New England Central move roughly 22,000 railcars a year and support several hundred local jobs.

Program scope and assets: VTrans staff said Vermont has about 572 miles of active railroad, of which 298 miles are state‑owned and 274 are privately owned. The agency reported 172 rail bridges in its maintenance responsibility and roughly 422 public railroad crossings (456 track counts when multiple tracks at one crossing are counted). DeLazier said the rail program inspects every public crossing…