FAIRBANKS (AP) -- The Alaska Railroad is receiving more than $16 million from the federal Department of Transportation toward a new railroad depot in Fairbanks and track straightening in the Anchorage area.

Of the DOT funds, $9 million will go to the Alaska Commuter Rail project, which involves straightening curves to reduce travel time and increase safety along the line near Anchorage.

The remaining $7.2 million will toward the railroad depot planned along the Johansen Expressway, according to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Construction of the depot was originally to have started this summer, but an air quality review delayed the work, said railroad spokesman Patrick Flynn.

With the majority of federal money in hand and the environmental assessments complete, some site work may start this fall, Flynn said.

The bulk of the construction will occur next summer and the new station will open in 2004.

The DOT found no significant environmental impacts.

The agency will contribute more than $15 million to the depot project. The most recent $7.2 million comes from annual appropriations bills passed in previous sessions of Congress.

The Alaska Railroad will provide 20 percent of the total project cost of $22.5 million.

A final $2 million is in the annual funding bill for the Department of Transportation for fiscal 2003, but that legislation still needs approval by both houses of Congress.

The funding bill for next year also carries language that will reduce the Alaska Railroad's matching requirement on future transit projects to about 9 percent. The lower percentage won't apply to the depot project in Fairbanks, Flynn told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Flynn said the change will bring the matching funds requirement more into line with the federal highway program, where the state pays about 10 percent and the federal government pays 90 percent.

The Alaska Railroad is owned by the state of Alaska but is run as an independent corporation.