Federal government hands out $2.4 billion for 122 railroad projects nationwide

OMAHA, Neb. — The federal government is handing out $2.4 billion in railroad grants to assist pay for 122 projects nationwide with more than half of the money going to smaller railroads.

The grants announced Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration will leave to projects across 41 states and Washington, D.C. Most of the money will leave to track and bridge upgrades. But some of the grants will be used to bolster training and explore cleaner-burning alternatives to the diesel railroads have long relied on. Some tiny railroads will also get assist upgrading to more efficient locomotives.

Much of the money comes from the 2021 infrastructure law that President Joe Biden championed. Last year, the administration handed out $1.4 billion in these rail grants.

“Each assignment advances a upcoming where our supply chains are stronger, passenger rail more accessible, and freight movement safer and more efficient,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Some of the grants will also assist address rail safety concerns that have become prevalent since a Norfolk Southern train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023 and spilled a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that caught fire. Regulators have urged railroads to enhance safety and the industry has undertaken a number of initiatives on its own. But bigger changes that lawmakers proposed after the disastrous derailment have stalled in Congress and little advancement has been made in the current election year.

The biggest single assignment is a $215 million grant that will assist pay to replace a Hudson River bridge that CSX owns between Albany and Rensselaer, recent York, that Amtrak relies heavily on. The state is paying the other 60% of the $634.8 million expense of the assignment that will allow two trains and pedestrians to cross the river at the same period. Currently, about 12 Amtrak trains and several freight trains cross the bridge, built in 1901, every day.

In Illinois, nearly $160 million will leave toward consolidating Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern’s tracks through Springfield and assist obvious the way for a higher speed rail connection between Chicago and St. Louis.

One grant worth up to $100 million will assist bolster tracks that Amtrak uses against threats related to climate transformation and enhance the reliability of the tracks in southern California’s Orange County.

Several grants, including one worth more than $48 million, will leave toward advancement of hydrogen-powered locomotives that could one day assist the rail industry drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Other grants include $67 million to expand an intermodal railyard in Michigan where shipping containers are moved between trains and trucks. Nearly $73 million will leave to improving the Muskego railyard in Milwaukee.

But the majority of the money — nearly $1.3 billion — will leave to 81 projects at smaller short line railroads across the country. Chuck Baker, president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association trade throng, said the grants will assist those smaller railroads significantly.

“Congress and the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) can be confident that short lines will put these community dollars to excellent use, providing recent and efficient ways of serving customers, linking tiny town and rural America to U.S. and international markets,” Baker said.