WASHINGTON — Historically, passenger rail funding has had legislative champions from each party in the House and Senate that successfully counteracted executive branch funding cuts. When President Donald Trump called for deep reductions aimed at Amtrak’s long-distance network during his first term, those budget proposals were eventually rebuffed in bipartisan transportation spending deals.
But this year, U.S. Senate confirmation of Trump’s most controversial cabinet appointees, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, behind near-unanimous Republican support — as well as lawmaker acquiescence to sweeping federal workforce cuts — make it uncertain whether guardrails Amtrak has relied upon in the past will protect the national network from starvation.
FRA grant-review logjam
Observers tell Trains News Wire that the case for rail passenger service preservation and expansion hasn’t been helped by a torturous Federal Railroad Administration approval process of grant applications for Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act money.
“If the goal is to actually expand and improve passenger rail during a timeline elected officials can support, then you have to streamline the process so that the funds are promptly distributed to the people who do the work,” says former Amtrak board chairman and current Transportation for America Chairman John Robert Smith.
Some projects are finally moving ahead, such as construction of a pocket track and platform in Mobile, Ala., that CSX and Amtrak agree is required before two daily round trips to New Orleans can commence. Service there is now expected to begin in June at the earliest.
But funds from most of the FRA’s 69 Corridor Identification grants, providing $500,000 for planning work, have not been distributed. This is also true for Interstate Rail Compact, Consolidated Rail and Safety Improvement (CRISI), and Restoration and Enhancement grants (where federal money helps states begin operations).
Once a recipient is notified that its application has been accepted, a back-and-forth negotiation between the grantee or its consultant and the FRA takes place; separate obligation and formal grant agreement stages spell out work the agency will reimburse. However, the FRA has also recently demanded an additional step: development of a “project performance plan” before money can be accessed. While ensuring compliance, these sequential negotiations significantly lengthen the process. Thus, very little money has been made available for reimbursement.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s vow to withhold funds from projects already awarded “that are in conflict with administration priorities” has resulted in widespread apprehension among grant recipients and their contractors.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s memo calling for “reliance upon sound economic analysis” in DOT policies, programs, and activities adds adds fuel to the fire.
That memo has drawn attention for calling for funding preference for communities with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average [see “Trump administration shakes up funding formulas …,” News Wire, Feb. 4, 2025]. But it also says each agency can “unilaterally amend the general terms and conditions as necessary to ensure compliance with federal law and consistency with this Order, and provide corresponding notice of such to recipients.” It sets Tuesday, Feb. 18, as the date by which all existing grant and loan agreements are to be reviewed by the FRA and other DOT departments.
The memo suggests grants “used to further local political objectives or for projects and goals that are purely local in nature and unrelated to a proper Federal interest” should be withdrawn.
Amtrak’s independence
How these policies may affect existing passenger service funding and oversight remain unclear.
Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush all attempted to “zero out” Amtrak money in many of the annual budgets they sent to Congress. The Democratic administrations of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton inflicted spending slashes responsible for 1979, 1995, and 1997 long-distance route rescissions, but the rest of the system stayed intact.
In late December, a bipartisan coalition of rural and urban U.S. Senators led the effort to confirm a geographically and politically diverse slate of Amtrak Board of Directors members committed to preserving a national system and exercising more management oversight. One board vacancy remains available to be filled by President Trump. Additionally, Republicans such as U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi have been vocal about improving and preserving passenger service through their states.
In the House, a contingent of Republican lawmakers from rural districts — both with and without Amtrak long-distance service — judges Amtrak by whether the quasi-public company is ”profitable.”
The incoming Transportation and Infrastructure Rail Subcommittee chairman, Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) reinforced that view at his initial hearing [see “Rail industry outlines legislative priorities …,” News Wire, Jan. 23, 2025]. “For Amtrak,” Webster said in his opening remarks, “we must look at improving and maintaining its existing network, weaning it off government support, and providing competitive, reliable, and safe service to attract riders.” Webster represents a district northwest of Orlando now only served by a Jacksonville-Lakeland, Fla., Amtrak Thruway bus connecting with the Floridian. He also said, “Passenger rail works best where demand is high, competition and private sector involvement are ample, and a dependence of government support is low,” but it should only “serve as an appealing option for travel, not as a replacement for vehicles and airplanes, which remain the overwhelming preference for Americans.”
On the other hand, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson represents northwest Louisiana. He and other Louisiana and Mississippi legislators have expressed support of the Southern Rail Commission’s efforts to bring an extension of the Crescent through their districts from Meridian, Miss., to Fort Worth, Tex. The long-sought project, among those awarded a Corridor ID planning grant, dates from the time John Robert Smith was Chairman of the Amtrak Board. Smith and Vice Chairman Michael Dukakis brought in David Gunn to run Amtrak in early 2002 when it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
Reached by phone at his Nova Scotia home, Gunn tells News Wire he was able to restore efficiency to the company despite threats of a shutdown from Norman Mineta, the Bush administration’s transportation secretary. “I cleaned up a lot of confusion about who was doing what,” he recalls.
Amtrak presidents such as Gunn and W. Graham Claytor, Jr., who took on the Reagan Administration’s cost-cutting budget hawk David Stockman, had powerful lawmakers at their backs to help weather past storms. Given a so-far subservient relationship of congressional Republican majorities to the President, it remains to be seen who might step up should blanket cuts be proposed. In the current environment, forceful engagement by Amtrak’s newly-installed board — the product of bipartisan compromise — could play a decisive role.
We got Amtrak because of Penn Central bankruptcy. The gub’mit spent the next decade attempting to fix the “railroad problem” within the structure of the ICC. After exhausting all options (and spending A LOT of money) they finally threw in the towel and partially dereg’d the railroads… and in doing so removed the guaranteed rate of return to maintain tracks to pax standards. Throwing money at a problem will make a few connected people happy but no greater good for the masses. We have a “railroad problem” again and it’s much larger than Amtrak. If this administration actually takes the time to address it I’ll be impressed… but I’m not holding my breath.
As noted in the article, Amtrak has held the long distance network together through the years with help from powerful members of Congress. DOGE doesn’t care that Congress appropriates money, it will cut spending it doesn’t like despite legislative directives and court rulings. And trains are “energy-efficient” and “climate friendly,” both now out of favor with the new regime. I would not bet that things at Amtrak will continue much like they have in the past.
King trump and President musk are only just getting started with their destruction of our government and our democracy. Amtrak will never make it through this administration. The Republicans in Congress have no backbone and will never stand up to him no matter how much harm he causes. And our Supreme Court’ is a joke so we can’t count on them to uphold the rule of law anymore. Here we are not even two months in to this idiot’s presidency and he’s caused more chaos than any president of any party in history. And we’ve got three years and ten months left for his reign of terror on our country. That’s IF he hasn’t figured a way to become a true dictator like his buddy Putin. It ain’t got bad yet and if ya voted for him you deserve what ya get! Unfortunately those of us that had enough brains to see it coming will suffer right along with you. But at least we can say we were on the right side of history. Oh and by the way I drove by the Amtrak station site in Mobile yesterday. They’ve only just put up a fence. No work has started. Alabama has already got the tax dollars they wanted for the CSX and State Docks Railroad railroad improvements they wanted. Now they are waiting for president musk to pull the plug on the whole thing. That’s the way our gubment works down here in deep red Alabama y’all.
You are all reacting way too much to all of this. What train-offs did we see in the first Trump administration? None. Yes, they had a bad leader, but gee, they do now, too! In fact, there is no leadership at Amtrak. The company is broken, in spite of all of the new money. Nothing changes.
Maybe, just maybe, Amtrak will improve with some real oversight, rather than just shovels full of money, which Amtrak seems unable to spend wisely.
I am sorry folks, Amtrak is WORSE now than it was in 2019, and I ride A LOT! I speak from experience. Something has to change. Period.
Go clutch your pearls and waste money riding trains that will be there, still, four years from now.
Honestly, I am tired of the left’s doomsday crap. Grow up, focus, and chill out.
Gee Daniel you must not be paying attention to what’s going on in the world today. You might need to “grow up” yourself and study up on current events.
“what trade-offs did we see in the first Trump administration?” LOLOLOL one of the first things Trump did when he got into office was to terminate the original Hudson tunnel replacement project. Now that will be completed at best 10 years later than it should have been done.
If Trump didnt care about potentially severing New York City train access, what chance do you think they will have this time around? I’ll let you figure it out on your own when the trains stop running.
Still I may want to take that long desired trip on the Empire Builder sooner than later. My trust level for this administration is at about zero.
Just one more way the present pols are trying to do in the citizens of the USA. With the rapid demise of intercity bus transportation if Amtrak LD disappears then it will keep the people more down on the farm. This will further Balkanize the country causing citizens to fight each other rather than be a united country.
ROFL! Charles Landey, you got what you wished for.
Now we have a President who’s not even allowed to be in office (because he was born in South Africa and immigrated here illegally) but wasn’t elected by anyone. No one is stopping Muskrat from pulling his nonsense (today it was revealed that the DOGE people left their database for their web site open to the world with no passwords). Oh right, he’s not President. But everything he does is illegal, starting with connecting random unvetted computers to government networks.
If you voted for Trump, what you got was Musky. Now we’re all paying the price. They’re about to start a deep recession by laying off 200K government workers quickly with no plan to figure out what happens afterward. And they’re going to give Ukraine to Russia, like it’s Poland in 1793 (look it up).
They’re already ignoring court orders (you can’t legally just unilaterally stop spending $ that’s been appropriated).
So thanks for that. And Robert Kennedy the anti-vaxx nut is now in charge of Health while we’re all staring down an avian flu pandemic. It’s about to get deeply messy.
Fair enuff Mike. I note your points.
Now Mike, let’s talk about the Other Party, the one I don’t vote for but possibly you do. For four years, we’ve had a Democrat administration, though it’s unclear to this day who was actually running the country. (We do know this. It wasn’t Joe Biden.) The Democrats’ only competency is to shovel money at a problem, not to properly manage the result. Thus America has the most expensive but the worst performing school systems (100% Democrat run) on the face of the earth. Within America we have the Milwaukee public schools (100% Democrat) which are so atrocious that my wife, a graduate of once-admirable Milwaukee East Division High School, won’t cross into the city limits.
Now back to Amtrak. Mike, you got what you asked for. Under joe Biden, or whoever was really in charge, Amtrak has gotten more and more money to deliver less and less. I will contemplate your post, Mike, if you will contemplate mine.
Oh, and BTW Mike, RKF Jr. (you brought him up), he is right about some stuff. Just because something is called a “vaccine” doesn’t mean I’m obligated to take it. After obtaining medical advice, I decide for myself. Almost always yes but on rare occasion no.
Best Valentine wishes to all.
Short of repeating myself, I would like to see Amtrak become a passenger railroad oversight like the FAA does for airspace. Lets define service slots and auction them off. Keep the STB as the overall authority to rule on disputes and mergers.
Rush hour departures should auction higher due to its time slot, red eyes would auction off lower due to its schedule.
So, in short: ride those trains while you can folks… they might not be there tomorrow!
Congress will not let that happen our country needs long distance overnight Amtrak without them people will never be able to sleep, eat, and see the country by rail
@Kris: The country, according to the Constitution, does not need passenger trains, and Congress has no spine to stop transit-hater Musk. Heck, we probably won’t have the Postal Service much longer, and that IS enshrined in that document. Republicans have had it out for both agencies for decades… so I don’t expect either of them to be around much longer.
There’s two issues. (1) A reckless president who is actually serious about cutting waste (that much is needed) but who doesn’t know when it’s appropriate to stop and think. (2) Many Republican congress members who aren’t very bright and who are better at making noise than at thinking through issues.
The second issue is why I strenuously oppose term limits for Congress. Yeah, there are some swamp creratures who have sat there too long, like Mitch McConnell and the late Robert Byrd. But as a general rule, Senators and Congress Members who have been there a while tend to have more perspective than the short-time rabble-rousers. Richard Lugar, Chuck Grassley, Daniel Inuoye, Orrin Hatch, Ted Kennedy, my own former Congress Member Jim Sensenbrenner, and many others who served in Washington for decades (Grassley is still there) have been voices for reason and stability. Some punk Republican in his or her first or second term will say, “Amtrak is waste, let’s get rid of it.”
Agree on term-limits, doesn’t solve issues that need solving, would hand more power to lobbyists and the president and courts.