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Last week, Sens. Joe Lieberman and Richard Blumenthal, and Rep. Joe Courtney sent a joint letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood voicing support for the New England Central Railroad’s (NECR) Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery III (TIGER III) grant application. The railroad is seeking a TIGER III grant to help fund infrastructure improvements along its 394-mile corridor between New London, Conn., and Montreal.

The project is sponsored by the Vermont Agency of Transportation and supported by Connecticut’s and Massachusetts’ transportation departments, the congressmen wrote in the letter, adding that NECR would provide a 20 percent funding match for the work.

“The NECR does not meet the current freight-rail standard of 286,000 pounds as established in 1995 by the Association for American Railroads. Due to the weight restrictions, the NECR is unable to accommodate many contemporary freight cars loaded to their full capacity,” the letter states. “Without modernizations, the NECR will be forced to confront the prospect of declining and diverted shipping traffic.”

The project also would provide “significant long-term local and regional benefits” by reducing congestion on key interstates, such as I-95, I-91 and I-89, the congressmen wrote.

“Currently, the NECR serves 77 rail freight customers and annually handles 38,000 carloads of freight — a total that already keeps 133,000 trucks off of New England highways every year,” they wrote. “Upon this project’s completion, NECR’s yearly freight total is anticipated to increase by almost 40 percent to 52,633 carloads.”