WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Railroad Administration is urging states to increase staffing and expertise to handle rail projects, given the additional funding available from the federal government.
A report on the website Route Fifty, which covers issues of interest to state and local goverments, says FRA Administrator Amit Bose told the U.S. Conference of Mayors that it is important “not just that cities and towns have technical capacity, but also that your state deparments of transportation have a robust rail program. … Passenger rail is a specialized craft. We need to make sure we have the resources and a focus on that.”
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $66 billion for Amtrak projects, with $36 billion of that dedicated to partnerships with states. Bose told the website that there is a significant contrast in rail staffing between states with significant rail operations and others which “compartmentalize rail within the freight office or the intermodal office. It can be a staff of one or two. Other states have dozens of staff dedicated to that. Some states rely a lot on consultants. But there’s nothing that beats having public employees that are publicly minded on staff.”
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