The Federal Railroad Administration has just doled out lots of money to “improve” rail infrastructure, some for the benefit of the coal industry:

•$100,000 to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad to replace 25-miles of cross ties between Cloe and Creekside, PA. This forms only part of a larger ongoing project to upgrade the line to allow trains delivering coal to the Edison Mission Homer City Power Plant to go faster.

• $882,000 to the Washington Department of Transportation for the Big Pasco Industrial Center along the Columbia River in southeast Washington. The specific grant will go to building 1.5 miles of new track for rail car switching, building a new track junction with the BNSF Railway, and a new highway-rail grade crossing at Sacajawea Park Road. This is part of a larger ongoing project to “consolidate the increasing volumes of intermodal, agricultural, and other freight rail traffic.”

• $924,510 to the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad to install 3 miles of continuous welded rail to “support safer operations, heavier rail car loads and higher track speeds.” This forms part of a larger ongoing project to “upgrade about 18-miles of track between North Stratford and Norton, VT.”