The Biden administration has awarded $1.4 billion to projects improving railway safety and boosting rail capacity.
The Biden administration announced Monday that it has awarded more than $1.4 billion to projects that improve railway safety and boost capacity, with much of the money coming from the 2021 infrastructure law.
“These projects will make American rail safer, more reliable, and more resilient, delivering tangible benefits to dozens of communities where railroads are located, and strengthening supply chains for the entire country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The money is funding 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Railroad safety has become a key concern nationwide ever since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in February. President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to hold the train’s operator Norfolk Southern accountable for the crash, but a package of proposed rail safety reforms has stalled in the Senate where the bill is still awaiting a vote. The White House is also saying that a possible government shutdown because of House Republicans would undermine railway safety.
The projects include track upgrades and bridge repairs, in addition to improving the connectivity among railways and making routes less vulnerable to extreme weather.
Maybe even some high speed rails! Acela has been a huge success in the Northeast, but we need it to become actual high speed and there are so many other places that could benefit from similar service.
Can we get a rail that isn't absurdly expensive so that only old people will take it for Olde time trainy fun, and that does not have freight share the tracks and take priority? Oh and if it rains, maybe the tracks are under water... And actual useful internet, and decent food options?
It’s also super frustrating living in the Northeast, because though we do have halfway decent Amtrak service, it’s priced so high that it’s often cheaper to fly from Boston to NYC. This is because the NE corridor (basically BOS to WAS) is the only part of the entire network that’s reliably profitable, so the ticket prices I pay directly subsidize Amtrak service for the entire rest of the country.
If we nationalized freight rail, Amtrak wouldn't have to operate around the caprice of freight rail companies.
Of course, nationalizing freight rail would be opposed by freight companies, and anything that makes rail travel tolerable would be fiercely opposed by airlines and car companies.
Yeah that's definitely an issue, too. Amtrak uses rails owned and operated by freight companies, and Amtrak is supposed to get priority on those rails ... but they don't.
As a resident of the northeast: this is nice on the face of it, but that’s a comically small amount of money to address a decades-long failure to invest in mass transit infrastructure.
We give billions of taxpayer money each year to build and maintain roadways for cars, while letting rail companies mostly depend on profits to do so with rail. It is no wonder which has won.
Definitely a shitty ownership problem since they're making record profits while deliberately understaffing and giving the workers they have working conditions in which it's impossible to do proper maintenance and safety checks.
Yup and guess who's getting the money. Then guess how much of it they'll spend on improving the deplorable working conditions including deliberate understaffing that are the ACTUAL main issues..
Let’s have the government bail out corporations again! What will the poor shareholders do if there investments sink. Who cares about the trash American living paycheck to paycheck.
Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. The company earnings is the rightful property of shareholders and company losses is a responsibility that society must shoulder. In other words, America only cares about our corporate overlords. They should have been investing in there infrastructure from the beginning and should be allowed to fail.
If the USA keeps trying we might even become as advanced as Japan, most of Europe, and oddly enough, China. They've been able to build public transport. Zero reason we can't except for the fact we keep electing moronic conservatives.
“These projects will make American rail safer, more reliable, and more resilient, delivering tangible benefits to dozens of communities where railroads are located, and strengthening supply chains for the entire country,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The money is funding 70 projects in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Railroad safety has become a key concern nationwide ever since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in February.
President Joe Biden has ordered federal agencies to hold the train’s operator Norfolk Southern accountable for the crash, but a package of proposed rail safety reforms has stalled in the Senate where the bill is still awaiting a vote.
“Restoring passenger rail service will create jobs, improve quality of life, and offer a convenient travel option for tourists, contributing to our region’s economic growth and vitality.”
That 17-year journey has been filled with obstacles and frustration — but also moments of joy, where local champions and national advocates were able to come together around the vision of a more connected Gulf Coast region,” Rail Passengers Association President & CEO Jim Mathews said.
In one of the biggest other grants, the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad in Washington state will get $72.8 million to upgrade the track and related infrastructure to allow that rail line to handle modern 286,000-pound railcars.
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Joke government from clown country breaks the back of a strike then passes milquetoast legislation that won't be enough money to do anything after the corrupt bidding process. News at 11