UNDERGROUND TRAIN: Trains like this Amtrak passenger train use the tunnel that goes under Bellows Falls, Vt. JOHN NORDELL - STAFF

Nine-inch dig to lift economic hope By John Nordell | Staff Photographer BELLOWS FALLS, VT. – Call it a miniversion of Boston's Big Dig: A railroad tunnel that burrows beneath this former mill town will soon have an additional nine inches of clearance. Because buildings built atop the tunnel prohibit raising the roof, the railbed will be lowered, as it has been done twice before. When finished, the project will unblock a major north-south rail bottleneck and draw more freight traffic to the region, with the attendant ripples of economic growth. Nine inches may help lift this former mill town. Nine more inches will let high-capacity railroad cars, including triple-decker car carriers, pass through the tunnel, built in 1851. For now, trucks that carry imported Audis, Subarus, and Volkswagens northward from a Rhode Island port cross over a bridge altered to accommodate future use by the larger rail cars.
	DIG IN: Lowering rails in this 279-foot Vermont tunnel will let taller freight cars pass. JOHN NORDELL - STAFF

Improvements to the rail spur serving the port will be completed this year, so car shipments will be able to head straight north via rail through this Vermont town to Montreal and beyond. Carrying freight by rail instead of by truck is more cost-effective and fuel efficient, notes Charles Miller, rail operations program manager at the Vermont Agency of Transportation. Using the same amount of fuel, trains can move freight three times as far as trucks, he says.

The $2 million effort is part of a $286 billion transportation bill that was signed into law last month. It's in stark contrast to the "Bridge to Nowhere" project in rural Alaska. The bill provides $223 million for the Alaska bridge, which leads to the tiny community on Gravina Island (pop.: 50).

"It definitely tops the list in terms of what we consider a wasteful project," says Erich Zimmerman, senior policy analyst for Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington, D.C.

As surging fuel prices threaten the nation's economic health, Mr. Miller hopes there will be "less talk about pork and more talk about ... the fuel economy of moving freight."

		FUTURE RAIL CARGO? Vehicles imported from Germany and Japan are picked up by trucks for delivery after they arrive at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, R.I. A tunnel project in Vermont and other rail improvements would result in many of these cars being carried by train - a more cost-effective and fuel-efficient method, transportation officials say. JOHN NORDELL - STAFF