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Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded more than $3.2 million to the state of Washington for the Mount Vernon siding extension project.

The $8.4 million project is part of the state's plan to improve travel times and operate higher-speed trains in the Pacific Northwest. The project calls for extending the existing siding, which is not long enough for freight trains to use, to help alleviate a bottleneck for BNSF Railway Co. and Amtrak Cascades trains operating through BNSF's Bellingham Subdivision.

Since 2009, the Federal Railroad Administration and states of Washington and Oregon have invested $800 million to help fund 21 rail improvement projects in the Pacific Northwest.