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

The federal government is handing out $2.4 billion in railroad grants to help 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 go to projects across 41 states and Washington, D.C. Most of the money will go 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 small railroads will also get help 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 project advances a future 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 help 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 improve 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 progress has been made in the current election year.

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

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

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

Several grants, including one worth more than $48 million, will go toward development of hydrogen-powered locomotives that could one day help 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 go to improving the Muskego railyard in Milwaukee.

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

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