The Trump Administration’s proposed federal budget would cut funding for Amtrak as well as reduce funding to other transit and transportation programs.
Under the budget proposal, funding to Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor will be cut $235 million, while $630 million in funding for Amtrak’s long-distance trains will be eliminated.
Grant programs under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act would be funded $375 million below authorized levels.
The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant program would be cut $499 million, and the Federal Transit Administration’s “New Starts” Capital Investment Program would be slashed $928 million.
Additionally, the infrastructure spending investment would only be $200 billion, $95 billion of which would come from reduced Highway Trust Fund funding after 2020.
The National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) opposed the budget proposal, urging commuters and NARP members to contact their congressmen.
“Unfortunately, it appears that President Trump has abandoned his campaign promise to invest in our infrastructure and get Americans working again,” NARP President & CEO Jim Mathews said. “This is a budget that treats small towns and rural communities as ‘flyover country.’ Instead of seeing citizens, it sees ‘a poor business case for investment.’ But we know that every American town deserves the tools to succeed, and the small business owner waiting at a station in Mississippi is no less important than a banker boarding an Acela in New York.”