The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will invest $5.3 billion into rail projects across the country to enhance safety and upgrade infrastructure, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.
The funding package is part of the National Railroad Partnership Program, passed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Duffy said this latest investment is money previously allocated to the California High Speed Rail project. Duffy canceled federal funding for the project and reallocated it to fund other projects.
“The projects we announced today will help make our nation’s rail network much safer because now state DOTs across America will have the funds they need to eliminate dangerous grade crossings across the nation,” FRA Administrator David Fink said. “FRA also collaborated with Amtrak over a two-year period to determine how best to distribute these funds so passenger trains can run on time and freight isn’t delayed.”
Around $2 billion of the grant package represents money reallocated from California. That money will close more than 30 grade crossings and upgrade more than 1,000 grade crossings. Additionally, the money will be spent on purchasing 43 trainsets to replace Amtrak’s aging fleet and overhaul 41 locomotives currently serving Amtrak’s Midwest and Pacific routes.
“Instead of wasting billions of dollars on a train to nowhere, we are fixing thousands of grade crossings – saving lives and improving communities across America,” Duffy said. “We’re also making an unprecedented investment in Amtrak because President Trump and I are committed to making passenger rail in America great again. Gavin Newsom should take notes–this is how you properly invest hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”
FRA said it place emphasis on targeting “high-risk” crossings for closure and replacement using data that showed an accident history of three or more incidents, or 2 or more fatal incidents over the last five years.
The projects also included $356 million for the Florida DOT for improvements at more than 910 highway-rail grade crossings across the state, $2.5 million for New Orleans, LA to make repairs to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, and $1.1 million for Crete, NE to examine eight existing at-grade crossing for possible future infrastructure improvements.