Metra adds $64.5 million to 2016 capital budget

Metra's board yesterday approved a $64.5 million increase to the agency's 2016 capital program, bringing its capital spending plan to $251 million.

The added funds came from an increase in federal dollars, a new federal grant, other new capital contributions and the transfer of funds from the 2015 operating budget, Metra officials said in a press release.

In particular, Metra will receive an $11.3 million increase in federal funds due to the recently enacted Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. In addition, the commuter-rail agency recently won a $14 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) VII grant to replace the Fox River Bridge on the Milwaukee West Line.

The remainder of the funds for the $34 million bridge project will be supplied through a reallocation of $14 million in the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority's existing bond funds, along with a $6 million contribution from Canadian Pacific.

The revised 2016 capital program also includes $12 million left over from last year's operating budget. That sum will be put toward the purchase of new rail cars or rehabilitating existing cars and locomotives as part of Metra's $2.4 billion modernization program.

The program also now provides $5.5 million to rehabilitate the Calumet Station on the Metra Electric Line.