Amtrak and its industry partners convened an industry roundtable to discuss the hundreds of major infrastructure rebuilding projects across the country.
Meeting with representatives of the construction, manufacturing, rail supply, engineering and other sectors, Amtrak and its private partners said the $4.5 billion in major infrastructure and fleet projects in the last year will help to transform Amtrak into a modern and more efficient passenger rail operator. Amtrak also said it plans to increase its capital investments by 50 percent in 2025.
“America deserves world-class infrastructure, and here at Amtrak we are doing our part,” Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said. “We’re leading a strong American workforce and private-sector partners in building new bridges, tunnels, and trains to help meet the historic demand for intercity passenger rail and improve connections for millions of people in more than 500 cities, towns, and rural areas around the country.”
The company said 99 percent of its procurements for the infrastructure program has been procured domestically. Those procurements have helped introduce new state-of-the-art trains across the country, including 111 modern trainsets and 125 high-powered locomotives in production, as well as contracts upcoming that will replace hundreds of long-distance railcars; the building of new bridges and tunnels to remove major bottlenecks; and a station improvement program that will improve accessibility at 380+ stations across the national network. The infrastructure improvements also include work on the company’s state-of-good repair program to maintain tracks, signals, power and other important systems.
“Our company takes great pride in our long history safely delivering infrastructure projects that provide and improve rail transportation across the U.S,” Kiewit Corporation Executive Vice President Greg Hill said. “We strongly support Amtrak’s ongoing major investments in capital programs that are building, repairing and transforming tunnels, bridges, rail lines and more to improve transportation safety and access to millions of people. Importantly, these programs also are expected to provide great jobs and training to thousands of construction and engineering workers across the country.”
The improvements build on record ridership demand, the company said. Improvements to the railroad system can advance the mega construction projects that enhance the fleet and help the company achieve record ridership and revenue which will lead to more U.S. jobs and strengthen the economy.