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An effort by a House panel to redirect funds from the Obama administrations high-speed rail program to Midwest disaster relief could mean the loss of as much as $450 million in funding for New York state, according to a spokeswoman for U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter. Its not clear whether the effort will succeed; it would have to get backing not only in the House but also the Senate, where support for high-speed rail appears to be stronger.

But it has raised concerns among rail advocates who see many of the projects as overdue.

The defunding effort would hit just about every high-speed rail project in New York state except a plan to add a track in Ballston Spa that would improve operations of Amtraks Adirondack service, said Bruce Becker, president of the Empire State Passengers Association.

Projects that could lose funding include the second track between Albany and Schenectady thats intended to ease a chronic bottleneck, a fourth track at the Rensselaer CDTA train station, a new station in Schenectady, and other track and signal improvements.

The shift is being undertaken by a group of Congressional Republicans who would fund disaster relief without increasing federal spending.

Its unfortunately being used as a tool to cut funding in other places, said Victoria Dillon, a spokeswoman for Slaughter, who has been a strong advocate of high-speed rail.

Slaughters office put together a congressional district-by-district breakdown of the funding losses, which found that U.S. Rep. Paul Tonkos district would lose $151.8 million in funding; U.S. Rep. Chris Gibsons district would lose $60.6 million in funding, and Slaughters district in the Rochester area would lose $59.5 million.

A spokeswoman for Gibson, a Republican, said that while he supports the passenger rail projects and appreciates their significance to the economy, he opposes the use of federal stimulus dollars. Instead, Gibson is seeking federal funding through more traditional transportation funding appropriations.

Becker, meanwhile, expects that efforts to oppose high-speed rail projects will continue.

While this effort might fail, Im not sure weve seen an end to efforts by a segment of the Republican party to go after Obamas vision for high-speed rail, he said.

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