[Pedestrian]

Congress Approves $2.8 Billion For Passenger Rail

Congress significantly increased funding for Amtrak, passenger rail, and transit as part of the $1.3 trillion Fiscal Year 2018 budget, a victory for passenger advocates that’s been a long time in the works . . . .

The bill, passed by Congress on March 23, includes $2.813 billion for intercity rail--an increase of $1.3 billion over last year! That figure includes $1.9 billion for Amtrak ($650 million for the Northeast Corridor and $1.3 billion for the National Network); $593 million for the Consolidated Rail Improvement, which includes $250 million for PTC implementation; $250 million for the State of Good Repair program; and $20 million for the Rail Restoration program, which will be instrumental in restoring rail service to the Gulf Coast.

The budget also contained good news for transit, with $10.3 billion for transit formula grants; $2.64 billion for the New Starts program, including $716 million for Core Capacity and $400 million for Small Starts; $150 million for DC Metro Rail; and $1.5 billion for the multi-modal TIGER program, three times as much as was provided for FY2017.

https://www.railpassengers.org/site/...newsletter.pdf