WASHINGTON — Fourteen Democratic senators have asked the leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund a major program for passenger rail projects, saying House Republicans have proposed zeroing out that funding.
In a Jan. 9 letter to the committee’s chairs, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), and ranking members Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the 14 senators led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) ask the committee to “defend” $75 million for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program in fiscal 2026. That amount was included in the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development appropriations bill previously passed by the committee.
“While [2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] provided five years of guaranteed funding for the Federal-State Partnership grant program, this funding was always intended to be supplemental to annually appropriated dollars,” the letter contends. “… The IIJA investment alone is not sufficient to fully address the nation’s rail state-of-good repair backlog nor to fully improve and expand passenger rail in a way that America deserves.”
The letter says the Northeast Corridor’s state-of-good-repair backlog of over $40 billion represents “a serious threat to the nation’s economy,” and cites 16 examples of new or expanded passenger rail service outside the NEC that it says could advance with Federal-State Partnership funding. Among them are Colorado’s Front Range Passenger Rail corridor; Ohio service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati; and multi-corridor service from a hub in Atlanta.
“On behalf of our millions of constituents who depend on a safe and reliable passenger rail network,” the letter concludes, “and also those who deserve access to passenger rail but do not have it as a meaningful option today, we urge the Subcommittee to vigorously defend the $75 million appropriation for FY 2026 for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant program.”
The full letter is available here.
— To report news or errors, contact trainsnewswire@firecrown.com.
