passenger rail Archives - Transportation For America

Long Distance Rail Study fails to address the needs of passengers

The Long-Distance Rail Study, released by the Federal Railroad Administration in the twilight hours of the Biden Administration on January 20, 2025, prioritizes lengthy projects that have little chance to succeed instead of shorter-term projects that can deliver service to Americans. It is imperative that Amtrak focus on routes that run daily and not only serve major employment centers but the small urban towns that lie between.

Cardinal Train passing by L’Enfant Station on 2/23/25 (Photo By Author)

In January 2025, just before the change of Presidential Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) released the Amtrak Long-Distance Service Study as a report to Congress. The study, which was due in November 2023, was mandated by Congress as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), with the goal of evaluating the restoration of several long-distance passenger rail routes to be operated by the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak).

The United States has lost many long-distance passenger rail routes in the decades following the founding of Amtrak in 1971. (Long-distance routes are routes that travel over 750 miles). The study found that many of the remaining 15 long-distance routes serve as a vital link for many rural communities that lack other transportation options, such as interstate highways or airports. Investing in more routes within the Amtrak network will offer increased access to communities across the country by a method other than driving or flying.

1940 map of passenger rail routes in the United States (Source)

Comparison map of Amtrak routes in 1971 vs 2021 (Source)

While it is admirable to recommend 15 more long-distance routes (some of which are the restoration of previous services, while others are brand new service proposals), many of these projects are not able to be completed in a short period of time. Many of the recommendations require complex negotiations with the freight rail companies that own the tracks, constructing new or refurbished accessible stations and boarding platforms, and brand new corridor alignments in order to meet the needs of these proposed services. It is important to think in terms of four-, six-, and eight-year increments for project timelines, as that is the time frame in which Congress and the Presidency operate. And it is often extremely difficult to convince elected leaders to support a project that they may not even see while they are in office.

Quick win opportunities: The Cardinal and the Sunset Limited

Figure 4-1 of the report

Of the 15 remaining long-distance routes, 13 have departures seven days a week. However, two of the proposed 15 trains have a lower frequency, only departing three times a week instead: the Cardinal and the Sunset Limited. Unlike many of the other new route proposals, upgrading the Cardinal and Sunset Limited to daily service is a feasible project that could be implemented in a shorter timeframe and deliver impactful results.

Houston, TX, the fourth most populous city in the United States and on the Sunset Limited route, is the largest city in the country without daily passenger rail service. The Cardinal exclusively connects Charleston, WV; Cincinnati, OH; and Indianapolis, IN, while the Sunset Limited exclusively connects Houston, TX; El Paso, TX; and Tucson, AZ. Cultivating daily service on these two routes would allow for reliable connectivity for many rural communities and small towns to economic and education opportunities and to health/social services.

North Coast Hiawatha Proposed Route (Source)

The North Coast Hiawatha, prominently listed as the “Seattle-Chicago” route, was a long-distance route that was discontinued in 1979. It was similar to the current Empire Builder route that travels between Chicago and Seattle or Portland (splitting service in Spokane), operating three times a week between Chicago and Seattle. However, unlike the Empire Builder, the North Coast Hiawatha took a more southern route through North Dakota and Montana, connecting cities such as Bismark, Billings, Bozeman, Helena, and Missoula. All of these cities currently lack passenger rail, which the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is advocating to change. Restoring the North Coast Hiawatha and upgrading it to daily service would allow for reliable connectivity and would increase access to everyday destinations.

Another branch of an existing service that was considered but not incorporated in the study was branching the Crescent, which runs from New York to New Orleans, at Meridian to have a branch to Fort Worth. This line has even received federal grants and currently has a supportive freight host (CPKC) for much of the route.

Tangible opportunities for tomorrow’s wins

With passenger rail funding at a crossroads in the United States, it is important that the FRA and Amtrak utilize existing rail assets in relation to population, economic, and health centers and prioritize starting passenger rail operations quickly. Projects such as the daily Cardinal and Sunset Limited, restoration and enhancement of the North Coast Hiawatha, and splitting the Crescent at Meridian to go to Dallas are shorter-term projects that would construct a brighter future for passenger rail. These projects would create new connections for riders, and allow greater mobility around the United States for a more reasonable cost and within a more reasonable timeframe.

Another hurdle cleared for passenger rail on the Gulf Coast

Today, the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, the Port of Mobile, CSX, and Norfolk Southern (NS) signed a $178 million grant agreement to fund necessary construction between Mobile and New Orleans, an important hurdle for passenger rail service to return to the Gulf Coast.

The signed agreement for a $178 million Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant is a critical step that represents 17 years of concerted efforts toward restoring passenger rail on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. This agreement includes funding for station and rail infrastructure improvements along the route in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, all required for service to return.

“Every step towards the return of passenger rail is a victory for the people who call the Gulf Coast home,” said Transportation for America Chair John Robert Smith. “The past two decades of tireless efforts by the Southern Rail Commission and other champions have made it possible for service to come back even better than before, giving people more freedom to choose how they want to travel.”

This announcement coincides with a groundbreaking for passenger rail in Mobile, Alabama with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and other federal leaders, where these funds will be used toward station siding and an ADA-compliant platform. The CRISI will fund station improvements in Mobile and New Orleans, safety improvements along the route, multimodal connection, and rail line improvements. Once these improvements are made, local leaders will be able to create safe routes and welcoming places for all travelers along the Gulf Coast. We look forward to the ultimate result of these efforts: the return of service.

Progress on the Gulf Coast would not have been possible without Senator Wicker’s leadership in creating CRISI and for his steadfast support for this project for the past decade. In addition, Senators Cochran and Hyde-Smith have dedicated invaluable time and resources to the restoration of service.

Transportation for America supports the Southern Rail Commission to champion the efforts to return service in the Gulf Coast and across the Deep South.

Press statement: Funding approved for the return of passenger rail in Mobile

City councilmembers in Mobile, Alabama have removed a barrier to passenger rail’s return in the Coastal South.

Today, the City Council of Mobile, Alabama voted to advance the long-awaited return of passenger rail on the Gulf Coast by approving a long-term lease and funding agreements with Amtrak and the Alabama Port Authority.

“This is a victory not only for Mobile but for every city and small town served by this route,” said John Robert Smith, Chair of Transportation for America. “I applaud the City of Mobile for removing the final roadblock to the return of passenger rail service along the Gulf Coast. This victory will improve economic mobility, connect communities across the Deep South, and set an example for the expansion of passenger rail across the country.”

“Long seen as a bellwether, the return of service to the Gulf Coast has revealed what’s possible, building momentum for a national passenger rail network,” continued Smith.

“Finally, this would not be possible without the instrumental support and leadership of our partners from the Southern Rail Commission; the Surface Transportation Board, which secured a historic settlement agreement among CSX, Norfolk Southern, Amtrak, and the Port; and the Federal Railroad Administration, which not only supported the CRISI grant but provided strong support before the STB. Finally, we would be remiss without thanking Senator Roger Wicker, who has been a tireless champion of passenger rail along the Gulf Coast from the beginning.”

Operating funding for this route, which will span from New Orleans, LA to Mobile, AL was sent off course when Alabama Governor Kay Ivey opposed funding, requiring the City of Mobile to come up with the funds for this vital service. Through an agreement between the Alabama Port Authority, the State of Alabama, and the City Council, roughly $3 million in funding has now been promised to Amtrak for the next three years, marking essential progress for the return of service. These funds build upon a $178.4 million grant previously awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration.

This change would not be possible without strong partnerships, and collaboration will continue to be essential as Amtrak begins track upgrades and infrastructure improvements to pave the way for the return of service, which we hope to see begin as soon as possible.

Learn more about the history of passenger rail and the return of service to the Gulf Coast
In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we published a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network.

Read the series here >>

Full speed ahead: How federal leaders can keep building on passenger rail progress

Passenger rail efforts in the Gulf Coast demonstrated tireless commitment to federal advocacy, funding development, and ultimately service implementation. But if our nation’s leaders are truly interested in advancing a national network, they can take action now to support future efforts.

In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we’re releasing a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network. This is part four of the series, written by Mehr Mukhtar and London Weier. Read part one, part two, and part three.

In our last three blogs, we outlined the challenges and opportunities in the maintenance and expansion of passenger rail service in the country, with an emphasis on the story of recent achievements in the Gulf Coast. It’s clear that the 2021 federal infrastructure law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA) unlocked a treasure trove of resources for advancing passenger rail in the United States, yet three years later, there’s still a great deal of progress to be made. This blog shares priorities for ensuring that we are making the most of this unlocked promise and possibility by creating a national vision for passenger rail.

National connectivity

Amtrak should continue to maintain and expand the connectivity and geographic coverage of the national network, as stipulated in the language of the IIJA. To ensure that the entire nation is served, both urban and rural, and judged by performance standards appropriate to the region served and type of service provided, the Northeast Corridor should not be treated as a separate entity to the entire national network.

Establish dedicated funding

Unlike public transit, aviation, and highways, passenger rail does not receive a dedicated source of revenue to build out its service. Instead, Amtrak relies on annual appropriations, which occur once each fiscal year. Our passenger rail network is living paycheck to paycheck, and that’s no way to invest in a long-term vision. In order to expand our network to its full potential, passenger rail needs to be treated as a service that has a future. Congress should set up a dedicated source of revenue for the development of passenger rail.

Encourage innovation

There are many private providers that, if given the opportunity, could lend their services and expertise to developing a robust passenger rail network. However, because Amtrak is the only passenger rail provider that can utilize the nation’s existing network of freight rail lines, it’s currently the only viable option to expand passenger rail across the country.

Extending the right-of-access to at least three providers would help spur innovation in passenger rail expansion, introducing new approaches, ideas, and competition. In addition, allowing freight or private providers to be eligible for federal funding for long distance service could further propel expansion.

Representation on the Amtrak Board of Directors

Amtrak’s existing board is not reflective of the geographic diversity of the communities across the nation that it serves or the types of service provided. An unrepresentative board prevents Amtrak from developing and advocating for strategic priorities that represent the interests of all of Amtrak’s users. The guidance laid out in the IIJA for representation on Amtrak’s board should be implemented and enforced.

Standardize the rail system

Right now, rail providers aren’t required to standardize their equipment, which means that any passenger rail network we create may require different equipment depending on the track design or power supply networks. This could lead to a disjointed rail network down the line, where only some trains are able to operate on certain tracks.

To ensure a streamlined customer experience and to make the most of taxpayer investments, equipment for conventional speed and high-speed rail should be standardized, as well as right-of-way infrastructure to ensure interoperability of the national system.

An upcoming opportunity

The 2021 infrastructure law is set to expire in 2026. At that point, our nation’s leaders will need to pass a new law, called the surface transportation reauthorization, to further enhance our nation’s transportation system. Reauthorization will present a monumental opportunity to reassert a consolidated vision for national passenger service. But we should be clear: there’s no need to wait. To make the most of the 2021 infrastructure law’s investments, our leaders can and should begin making progress on the priorities listed above right now.

From excitement to reality: Implementing passenger rail on the Gulf Coast

Passengers prepare to board an Amtrak train

Federal advocacy and allies were essential to turning local momentum for passenger rail from New Orleans to Mobile—set to reopen this very year—into a regional, and national, success story.

In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we’re releasing a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network. This is part three of the series, written by Mehr Mukhtar and London Weier. Read part one on the history of passenger rail, part two on building momentum for change, and part four on next steps for a national network.

As we explained in our last article on passenger rail in the Gulf Coast, in 2017, the Federal Railroad Administration’s Gulf Coast Working Group (GCWG) established that the region needs passenger rail expansion, first from New Orleans to Mobile—a major step in growing the region’s rail network. However, the restoration process would require infrastructure and operations investment.

At this point, Transportation for America had assisted the Southern Rail Commission with a variety of projects, including the 2016 ride-along that showcased local excitement for the restored route, but T4A started to take on a larger role to develop funding avenues, which could support the work that would come out of the FRA working group’s report.

Policy developments and funding

The first steps for the SRC and T4A was to find their champions, those legislators that would work to develop and support policy that could fund passenger rail restoration in the Gulf Coast. Senator Roger Wicker, former Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee; Senator Maria Cantwell, former Ranking Member and current Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee; and former United States Representative Peter DeFazio were key supporters of various initiatives brought to attention by the SRC and T4A.

A key initiative of the Southern Rail Commission, spearheaded by Chairman Knox Ross and Vice Chair John Spain, was advocating for the creation of passenger rail funding avenues on the federal level. They argued that federal funding sources, when combined with local financial support, would help build a cohesive and unified approach to restoration. Out of these efforts came two federal grant programs, the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program and the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) program, which provided the Gulf Coast with the resources needed to turn two decades of advocacy into action. These wins are a perfect example of the nationwide impact Gulf Coast efforts have had, as these federal grant programs provide funding for passenger rail expansion across the country.

The CRISI grant program makes funding available for projects which improve safety, efficiency, and reliability of intercity passenger rail and freight rail. In 2022, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) was awarded this grant for the final design and construction of infrastructure needs for the Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement Project. These funds illustrate an exciting new phase of passenger rail restoration in the Gulf Coast as the SRC, Amtrak, and FRA step into the implementation phase. Additionally, funds matched by the state governments of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama in addition to matches provided by freight rail corporations CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway exemplify successful efforts to unify local, regional, and federal rail actors behind the project.

On the other hand, the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) grant would aid in operations support. These funding opportunities not only provide the necessary resources to complete the New Orleans to Mobile train; they also provide the entire nation with an opportunity to implement rail restoration.

These successes led to a broad recognition of the need for rail compacts, not only in the Gulf Coast Region, but across the nation. The SRC had successfully advocated for funding avenues and seen initiatives across the Gulf Coast awarded funding for project implementation. Rail compacts were born out of the recognition that a cohesive and unified approach to implementing policy and funding mechanisms was required to develop intercity passenger rail services, as proven by the SRC’s efforts. The Interstate Rail Compacts grant program was created to provide financial assistance to support the activities of entities implementing rail compacts for the purpose of unifying governments along a corridor. This served as a valuable coordination tactic for aligning stakeholders to further the development of passenger rail in a given area.

Once an institution is created to help develop, guide, and oversee a passenger rail vision, it will need support to create an implementation strategy. The FRA created the Corridor Identification and Development Program (CIDP) to direct federal investments and technical assistance towards priority rail corridors for new or improved intercity passenger rail services. This collaboration would help develop corridors that are desired by local communities and states, while also advancing passenger rail connectivity not only within their region but across the country. In December 2023, the FRA awarded the SRC $500,000 through this program to develop the I-20 passenger rail corridor, which would connect Shreveport, Ruston, and Monroe to Dallas, Texas. The commitment of funds towards developing passenger rail service reflects the interest of the FRA in continuing to invest in the future of passenger rail in the Gulf Coast region, and nationally.

A notable characteristic of the CIDP is the desire to highlight what communities find valuable, rather than solely rely on a national vision to develop new routes.

Mobile and Amtrak negotiations

Aligning state and local support for implementation was a crucial aspect of revitalizing passenger rail service, as funding is hinged on subsidies from the states. The states of Louisiana and Mississippi both agreed to supply the match required for a federal grant covering operating assistance for six years in the project federal matching fund, while the state of Alabama opted out of picking up the costs. This shifted the responsibility of providing a match for the project to the city of Mobile, leaving confirmed funding sources for Gulf Coast service hanging in the balance.

After a series of long negotiations lasting almost over a year between Amtrak and the Mobile City Council regarding an operations agreement and station site lease, a deal has been struck. Mobile’s funding obligation would be split equally between the city, the state of Alabama and the Alabama State Port Authority. Although the details of sustained operating funding is still to be ironed out, this represents significant progress and partnership between these entities in the realization of the Gulf Coast service.

The next stop

With service expected to begin at the end of the year, the creation of policy and funding vehicles for improving and expanding passenger rail services across the country has been a tremendous success.

The expansion of passenger rail on the Gulf Coast reflects the common challenges our nation faces when expanding non-car-centric infrastructure, yet it is also an example of how to right those wrongs. The road to passenger rail restoration in the Gulf Coast has been a long one, but rail service is soon to resume. At the heart of this story are shared efforts between the SRC, FRA, Amtrak, regional and local elected officials, and community leaders, which have culminated in a new path forward for passenger rail in the region. In our final blog in this series, we’ll share the final lessons we learned from the Gulf Coast.

Building momentum for a national passenger rail network

A crowd of people gathers by an Amtrak train, a U.S. flag waving above them.

After the setbacks of the late 90s and early 2000s, passenger rail advocates along the Gulf Coast were not discouraged. Through the work of a Regional Rail Commission and the cultivation of relationships with local, regional, and federal leaders, these advocates were able to build a foundation for the implementation of passenger rail restoration in the region.

In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we’re releasing a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network. This is part two of the series, written by Mehr Mukhtar and London Weier. Read part one, part three, and part four.

*Hundreds of Gulfport, MS residents greet Amtrak representatives and local officials as the inspection train arrives Thursday, February 18, 2016.* *(Tim Meuller)*

In our last article on passenger rail, we ended on the double blow caused by Hurricane Katrina coupled with years of consistent divestment away from passenger rail. The impacts of these years weren’t unique to the Gulf Coast, with the negative impacts of divestment away from passenger rail service being felt across the nation. Reversing these trends has taken consistent efforts from champions to build both momentum and support for passenger rail.

The Southern Rail Commission, T4A, and other champions built relationships, cultivated policy, and established a desire for funding to grow the presence of passenger rail in the region. While these efforts aren’t unique to the Gulf Coast, we can turn our attention to this corner of the nation as a strong example of how to address this multitude of challenges, even when the odds are stacked against you.

The creation of the Southern Rail Commission

Authorized by Congress in 1982 as the nation’s first Regional Rail Commission, the SRC was awarded a designation as a future high-speed rail corridor along the Gulf Coast and up through Meridian, Mississippi. This was reflective of the momentum for passenger rail that had been building in the country.

For years, the SRC worked to expand rail in the Gulf Coast and connect regional lines with long distance ones, ultimately resulting in the first truly transcontinental rail line in American history. The designation as a future high-speed rail corridor further exemplified support for expanding passenger rail as it made available federal funds necessary for project planning and implementation. Yet, following Hurricane Katrina, the loss of crucial passenger rail connections was ignored in the great recovery despite the restoration of all other critical infrastructure.

The SRC stepped into this void, bringing the matter to local, regional, and national attention. A national energy for the restoration of passenger rail did not emerge out of thin air, rather, it was the concerted efforts on behalf of leaders across the country who optimistically believed in the reality of the train.

Map showing the stops of the restored route from New Orleans to Mobile, making stops in Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pascagoula along the way. — *(Southern Rail Commission)*

Building excitement, locally and nationally

Elected officials, mayors, federal representatives, and community leaders tirelessly advocated for the economic, cultural, and mobility opportunities that the service had the potential to restore. Relationships were cultivated with advocates in Congress and the Senate, with leaders such as Senator Roger Wicker (MS) and Senator Thad Cochran (MS), who took positions as champions for expanding the national rail network, including restoring service on the Gulf Coast.

The Gulf Coast Working Group (GCWG) was authorized by Congress in 2015 to oversee the prospect of restoring passenger rail service, bringing attention to passenger rail as the backbone of the transportation system. Members of the group were tasked with evaluating options for intercity passenger rail restoration, selecting a preferred option for the route, and determining federal and non-federal funding mechanisms necessary to the restoration. Findings of the GCWG, as reported to Congress in 2017 in the Gulf Coast Working Group Report, determined that the first service that should be restored would be the New Orleans to Mobile route.

In the midst of developing the Gulf Coast Working Group Report, the Southern Rail Commission coordinated with the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak, and state and federal leaders to build local and regional excitement for the initiative. A defining moment arrived for the restoration of Gulf Coast passenger rail with the ride-along in 2016. The inspection train, traversing from New Orleans, LA to Jacksonville, FL, helped identify a potential route and examine the existing freight line infrastructure.

The inspection train arrives in Mobile, greeted by a crowd lined up by the tracks — *(Amtrak)*

As the train rolled into Mobile for the first time in nearly a decade, the passion for the rail line was on palpable display. Cheering crowds flocked to the platform showcasing the community’s desire to restore the rail connection and options for transportation and mobility for the region. Scores of people continued to throng the route to watch the train run, even when the train wouldn’t stop in their community, serving as testament to what restored service represented for communities in the Southeast—and proof of the political will needed for service to return. Transportation for America has worked with the SRC to build on this momentum through policy advocacy at the federal level.

Negotiations begin

Restoration of passenger rail faced numerous obstacles in its implementation, one of them being disagreements amongst freight rail carriers on the infrastructure requirements for the route. Freight carriers, CSX and Norfolk Southern, expressed concern about capacity challenges when their existing rail infrastructure would need to accommodate passenger rail trips.

Continued support and involvement from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) helped resolve the disagreements and ensure that passenger service would be restored. In fact, the FRA’s involvement in the Gulf Coast Working Group Report to Congress found solutions to shared track schedules and illustrated the numerous benefits that track restoration would have to both freight rail and passenger rail. The success of these negotiations underscored the importance of collecting reliable and transparent rail data, and the ongoing value of collaboration between freight and passenger rail.

Political advocacy, community engagement, and the evolving discussions with freight rail laid the groundwork for restored passenger rail along the Gulf Coast. These efforts made it possible to begin negotiations and construction, but there are still some necessary components needed to make it to the finish line, most notably funding. Stay tuned for the next part of this series when we explore how the momentum for this cause is translated into implementation and wins!

What happened to U.S. passenger rail?

An empty black-and-white train track disappears into the fog

Almost a century ago, the railroads were the economic engine of the country, spurring the transportation of both goods and people over long distances. Now, the American railroad system is merely a specter of its former self. How did the United States devolve from an expanded passenger rail network to the system we have today?

In recognition of recent progress for passenger service in the Coastal South, we’re releasing a four-part series exploring how unified regional and national approaches, supported by local advocacy and sound policy, can help create a successful passenger rail network. This is part one of the series, written by Mehr Mukhtar and London Weier. Read part two on building momentum for change, part three on converting support into action, and part four on next steps for a national network.

The Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 created the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak as we know it today). The advent of the automobile, creation of the Interstate Highway System, and a boom in air travel all diverted passengers away from rail. Railroads began losing out on passengers, and in their desire to increase profits, they started viewing their requirement to maintain passenger railroads as a costly financial burden. Creating a dedicated entity to serve passenger rail was seen as the solution to shifting the burden of passenger railroads away from freight railroads.

The mission of Amtrak at its inception, to maintain a national passenger rail network, is a far cry from the current state of the corporation. This is largely due to a failure in government funding, as policymakers continue to criticize Amtrak for a lack of profits, even as a lack of funding diminishes the service. In 1995, Amtrak faced severe budget cuts by the federal government, forcing suspensions and reduced service across the country.

In most of the country, passenger service decreased from 7 days per week to only 3 days per week and some routes were permanently eliminated, devastating the frequency of the service and its reliability as a mode of commuting. This had particularly far-reaching consequences for smaller towns and cities that suddenly became disconnected from their passenger rail routes.

Despite this setback, local leaders coalesced to press Amtrak and Congress to restore many of these reductions in service. Congress responded by creating an entirely new Amtrak Board of Directors, and under new management, Amtrak made great strides in the Northeast Corridor with the rollout of Acela, their first high-speed rail, in 2000. They accomplished this all while improving long distance service and developing state supported service. These improvements were short-lived, however. Changing leadership of the board and executive staff led to decisions focused on the Northeast Corridor to the detriment of the national system. This deficiency of investments and oversight outside of the corridor stifled expansion in the rest of the nation.

In the Coastal South, as in much of the United States, this trend ultimately resulted in a passenger rail system that was failing to prioritize connectivity and meet the needs of the public. Hurricane Katrina was the final nail in the coffin.

In 1962, a robust web of passenger rail service skirted across the U.S.

By 2005, this network was immensely diminished, showing only a small smattering of distinct lines

Even before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, passenger service was experiencing an ongoing decline in every part of the country. Maps created by Michael Kenton using data from the Rail Passengers Association.

Disaster strikes

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States, causing thousands of deaths and over $108 billion in property damage. Among the damage caused by the storm was considerable destruction of critical rail infrastructure, especially on the line between New Orleans, Louisiana (LA) and Mobile, Alabama (AL).

In the days immediately before and after the storm, all Amtrak service through New Orleans was halted. Today, three long distance trains depart from New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the City of New Orleans (service between New Orleans and Chicago), the Crescent (service between New Orleans and New York), and the Sunset Limited (service between New Orleans and Los Angeles).

Although the City of New Orleans and the Crescent returned in full swing about one month after Katrina made landfall, the Sunset Limited service was permanently changed. Prior to Katrina, Sunset Limited connected communities from coast to coast, running from Los Angeles to Orlando, Florida; however, since Katrina, the train reaches its final eastward destination in New Orleans.

The brunt of track damage occurred on the eastward bound sections of track connecting New Orleans to Mobile, an essential connection to continue Sunset Limited service to Orlando. Along this route, Amtrak passenger trains shared track belonging to freight companies CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern (NS), and Union Pacific (UP). CSX took the brunt of storm damage and needed to restore five bridges and 40 miles of track that were completely washed out in the wake of Katrina. Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific lines also experienced considerable bridge damage and track repairs, including the need to restore felled power lines. Though freight rail lines took four months to repair, tracks shared by Amtrak (which were the responsibility of freight railroads to restore) took six months to recover.

In the almost two decades since Katrina made landfall, passenger rail lines leading eastward from New Orleans have not been restored. Post-hurricane rail restoration left this line out of the picture, an oversight that members of the impacted communities would fight for years to amend.

The loss of Gulf Coast service after Katrina had a particularly devastating impact on communities in the region, but the decline of passenger service in the South was also reflective of a larger disinvestment in passenger rail in every part of the country, particularly outside of the Northeast Corridor.

These lessons from the past can serve as a blueprint for the future of nationwide passenger rail that we are aspiring towards. New funding mechanisms and policy developments, such as the IIJA, capture the efforts to revive the historic role that passenger railroads have played in the country. Through decades-long advocacy with passenger rail groups across the country, Transportation for America has demonstrated that good policy, combined with the knowledge and expertise of dedicated advocates, can build momentum for improved service to reverse the deterioration our passenger rail system has witnessed. We’ll explain how in the next three parts of our series. Stay tuned!

Progress for passenger rail in the South and beyond

A shiny passenger train chugs down the track in a southern town

Two recent developments at the federal level can help propel passenger rail expansion in the South and across the country.

Interstate Rail Compact Grant

The states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana make up the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), which has been steadfastly committed to expanding passenger rail service in the South for the past 40 years, most recently achieving success for the restoration of service on the Gulf Coast.

On March 14th, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced that the SRC, along with rail commissions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic won an Interstate Rail Compact (IRC) grant. The SRC will match 50 percent of the $400,000 they have been awarded and use these funds to hire more people, market passenger rail, conduct impact studies, and apply for more federal grants. In short, they can spend the money on everything but running the service itself.

The SRC has been fighting the good fight for decades. Passenger rail service in the United States has been on the ropes for decades, with much of the service in the South phased out in the 70s. The situation only worsened after Hurricane Katrina in 2005; passenger rail service has not been running on the Gulf Coast for nearly 20 years.

The grant spells good things for the ongoing fight for passenger rail. In addition to the restoration of service on the Gulf Coast, the SRC has several projects to support, including passenger rail extensions between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Mobile to New Orleans, and Dallas to Atlanta. This grant will help them further advance their efforts.

Passenger Rail Advisory Committee

Hot off the heels of the IRC grant announcements, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has publicly announced the membership of their new Passenger Rail Advisory Committee (PRAC). The STB’s duties related to passenger rail service have expanded in recent years, leading to the creation of the PRAC. This committee is intended to advise on increasing route efficiency, mediating between passenger and freight companies, and improving inter-city rail-related processes. Its formation is a testament to continued progress for passenger rail at the federal level, which we hope will translate to support for passenger service across the country.

Among the names of the 21 voting members lies our own chair, John Robert Smith, former Amtrak board member and former member/long-time advisor to the SRC. The inclusion of advocates like John Robert, who have dedicated decades in the pursuit of passenger rail service across the country, will be critical in supporting expansion efforts in the present day.

While these advancements for passenger rail are particularly good news for the South, they’re also proof of what’s possible in the rest of the country. The SRC continues to build upon their recent success in the Gulf Coast, showing what bipartisan leadership on interstate rail can accomplish. As support for passenger rail continues to evolve at the federal level, we hope more leaders will follow their example.

Avoiding Derailment: The Freights First Act in Perspective

Amtrak’s eastbound Texas Eagle train departs Dallas.

There is no denying that there are persistent issues that impact reliable freight service and the efficient delivery of goods nationwide. Yet, despite the discussion of the myriad service issues that affect the supply chain, Amtrak and passenger rail have not been identified as a cause of disruption, and have, in fact, been conspicuously absent from the conversation in general. Despite this lack of impact, critics argue that if the Freights First Act is enacted, it could jeopardize the growth of passenger rail and roll back vital infrastructure investment goals.

Amtrak’s eastbound Texas Eagle departs Dallas. (Matt Shell via Flickr)

The Freights First Act, introduced by Rep. Eric Burlison (MO), seeks to “eliminate Amtrak’s right of preference” over freight transportation in what is being portrayed as an attempt to prevent freight rail bottlenecks and expedite freight movement. Co-sponsored by U.S. Representatives Troy E. Nehls (TX), Scott Perry (PA), Andrew Ogles (TN), and Harriet M. Hageman (WY), there has been no evidence implicating passenger rail as an obstacle to freight service productivity.

In April 2022, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) held a public hearing to urgently assess freight rail service performance and how unreliability and inconsistency impact the supply chain. Stakeholders, including rail labor organizations and shipping companies, gave extensive testimonies regarding service concerns and their vision for a path toward service recovery. The STB found that decades-long practices such as reducing operating ratios and diminishing the existing workforce to cut costs are harmful to operations and stymies service.

Following the investigation, the STB issued a ruling that requires Class 1 freight railroads, namely BNSF, CSX, UP, and NS, to be put on an aggressive schedule to provide updates on their rail service, performance, and employment. This evaluation of progress is a significant step forward in monitoring improvements from freight railroads that urgently need to reform their precision scheduled railroading model as well as increase transparency and accountability.

Notably, passenger rail was not identified as a concern throughout this process—even by the freight provider’s own admission. This means that if enacted, this legislation will likely not improve delays and establish efficient freight service. What this legislation will achieve, is effectively dismantling a robust network of national and state-supported passenger rail service, and undermining the vision for growth and expansion of nationwide passenger rail service outlined in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

The Freights First Act also contradicts the goals of the citizens whom proponents of this bill are supposed to represent while obscuring and ignoring the real obstacles that are hindering the improvement of freight service. Mayors of Houston, Austin, and San Antonio have looked into popular options to expanding passenger rail in the Texas Triangle in order to prioritize local economies and connect people to services. The current infrastructure funding presents an opportunity for these states to advance projects that can improve mobility in their region, including the extension of the Amtrak Heartland Flyer as well as the I-35 rail expansion. Similarly, Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga have declared interest in passenger rail opportunities throughout Tennessee to meet growth and mobility needs. The agenda being advocated for by the representatives sponsoring the Freights First Act is entirely misaligned with the tireless support for passenger rail exhibited by these states and communities.

The IIJA presents a momentous opportunity to act decisively and improve community connectivity through a strong network of passenger rail service, and our responsibility is to support this movement, not roll it back. The Freights First Act is presented as an aspiration for improving the nation’s supply chain performance but it is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to destroy intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation.

Transit’s physical cliff: Climate change

A passenger train crosses a bridge near coastal California cliffs

California and New York State Legislatures voted to save transit from the fiscal cliff in 2023. While a win for transit can be a win for the climate, changing conditions across the country demonstrate the need for transit to find ways to be both fiscally and physically resilient.

Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner along coastal bluffs. Photo by Glenn Beltz via Flickr.

Between uncertain revenue sources, a sluggish ridership recovery after the pandemic, and increasing inflation-derived capital costs, transit agencies have their work cut out for them over the next few years. However, these crises are not new. Over the course of the 20th century, urban mass transit has had to weather many of the same crises we face today, including dealing with sprawling development, congested commutes, and inevitable budget crises stemming from unsustainable revenue streams. Transit advocates still need to find permanent ways down the fiscal cliff, and the solutions will likely involve brave policy decisions, coordinated advocacy, and innovation from transit authorities.

But the fiscal cliff is not the only problem on the horizon. As climate change unfolds, transit will need the support to serve as communities’ resilient backbone through subtle, day-to-day challenges and demanding disasters.

Changing landscapes

Coastal erosion, an issue only exacerbated by climate change, threatens one of the country’s most highly utilized rail transportation corridors. The Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Corridor in Southern California serves millions of riders annually and currently vies for the title of second-busiest intercity passenger rail corridor with Miami and Orlando’s new Brightline rail service. The alignment hosts Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner as well as two commuter rail services, Metrolink in Los Angeles and Coaster in San Diego, connecting people to jobs along the coast and helping travelers bypass the extreme traffic congestion Southern Californians have always struggled with.

Despite the high ridership and significance to the region, the current alignment is literally falling into the sea as the rails on sandstone bluffs erode with rising sea levels and shifting weather patterns. After two decades of service interruptions from landslides and over $100 million spent on temporary measures to stave off literal collapse, the San Diego Association of Governments has begun preliminary engineering & environmental review work to study a new alignment (with plans to open in 2035), after years of consideration and following months of service interruptions.

Sudden disasters

As adverse weather events like the recent Hurricane Otis and Tropical Storm Hilary become increasingly frequent and intense, the federal government, states, MPOs, and transit authorities will need to find ways to cooperate both proactively and reactively to meet the moment. Failure to prepare for and rebuild in the wake of a disaster can set regions back for years and only increase future chaos. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast’s rail infrastructure, it eliminated a key resource for the region’s resilience. While freight rail infrastructure was quickly repaired, passenger trains have been out of service for nearly two decades and only recently—after much effort—are due to return.

Without passenger rail or mass transit, residents are dependent on highway infrastructure for evacuation, which is vulnerable to car crashes and choking congestion during emergencies (check out the congestion on I-45 during an evacuation of Houston in 2005). Transit and passenger rail can provide citizens, especially those who do not have a car, a resilient avenue for evacuation that won’t just clog with a traffic jam.

The need for emergency funding

The stunningly fast 12-day turnaround to patch connections after the Interstate 95 collapse in Philadelphia this year shows just how swiftly critical infrastructure can be restored when properly prioritized. Mere days after the collapse, the Federal Highway Administration released $3 million to Pennsylvania DOT, offsetting the costs of the state’s repairs that started immediately after the incident. The FHWA’s Emergency Relief Program, funded at $100 million annually (in addition to supplemental appropriations), covers 100 percent of the immediate costs to mitigate emergency damage and up to 90 percent of federal highway repairs. This fast-acting program enables critical, day-one work to restore service, as states can work with certainty that they will be quickly reimbursed.

Transit and passenger rail need emergency funding that is just as responsive (if not more so) than programs for highway infrastructure. Just as repairs are needed for highways to continue functioning after a disaster, they’re needed to keep transit and passenger rail running on time so that people can get where they need to go. And since transit can be a valuable tool for mobility in the wake of disaster, transit systems should be restored as quickly as possible to ensure travel flow can continue.

Unlike the FHWA’s emergency program, the Federal Transit Administration’s Public Transit Emergency Relief Program receives $0 in annual appropriations. Instead, transit has to rely on Congress to pass legislation (a task that generally requires a Speaker of the House) to respond to disasters. This means that FTA cannot provide funding immediately after emergencies. Worse still, when disaster hits rail infrastructure, FTA’s disaster reserves have been transferred out to the Federal Railroad Administration, which does not have a much-needed emergency relief program of its own. Funds for disasters that occurred as far back as 2017 were only awarded this year as a result of an act that appropriated just $214 million to transit for four calendar years of disasters. Meanwhile, the same bill appropriated an additional $803 million to FHWA’s emergency program, on top of annual appropriations.

This issue is being recognized by federal legislators in new marker bills leading up to the next transportation reauthorization bill. Earlier this year, Senator Fetterman introduced a bill to inject an additional $50 million annually for the FTA’s Public Transit Emergency Relief Program to expedite the delivery of funds to match I-95’s 12-day recovery. In response to sudden rain and flooding in New York, Senator Gillibrand put forth legislation that would add funding to help transit agencies conduct proactive resiliency projects to FTA’s State of Good Repair Grants. Long-term resiliency for transit matters more every year, as its riders, many of whom are low-income, will be the most intensely hit by climate change, which they will face in the form of record-breaking heatwaves, rainstorms, and wildfire-induced air pollution.

The bottom line

With the IIJA lapsing in 2026 and natural disasters on the rise with climate change, Congress needs to devise new policies to improve how the country restores public transit in the wake of earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, and even the less dramatic, predictable emergencies. New programs must find ways to prioritize transit speed, equitable service, and long-term resiliency, not just infrastructure built the same and built to fail.

Final grant clears the way to restore Gulf Coast passenger rail service

Last week’s announcement of a $178 million federal grant to make track and infrastructure improvements along the Gulf Coast rail corridor represents the last major funding hurdle to restoring passenger rail service from New Orleans to Mobile, AL.

Residents of Mobile welcomed the Amtrak inspection train during a stop in February 2016. They are close to getting their wish.

It’s been a long journey.

Seven years ago in February, a special Amtrak inspection train rolled along the Gulf Coast corridor to both preview the route and build support for restoring passenger service that was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, nearly 11 years earlier. Making brief, 10-minute stops in Gulf Coast towns along the way, it was greeted by thousands of cheering residents clamoring for passenger rail to return. I was there in 2016, and—a little overwhelmed by the level of support—I wrote about seeing “rich people, poor people, black people, white people, young people, old people — all asking their elected leaders for the same thing: We want passenger rail back on the Gulf Coast.”

The last major funding barrier has been breached. Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker last week announced a $178.4 million federal grant to make a litany of infrastructure investments in the corridor, including track, sidings, signals, new platforms, and other improvements. We’re not quite at the end yet, but this grant caps off a decade of work by the Southern Rail Commission, local and state advocates, and Transportation for America.

We applaud @SenatorWicker for his leadership in creating the program to expand and improve our nation’s rail networks. We’re now on the cusp of seeing that dream become reality for the people of the Coastal South.https://t.co/vu8rirksRO
— Beth Osborne (@BethOsborneT4A) September 21, 2023

These improvements will allow new passenger service to start up in the first quarter of 2024, hopefully in time for Mardi Gras. Once launched, there will be two trains daily between New Orleans and Mobile, with stops in:

Bay St. Louis…

the backs of women in colorful wigs and costumes looking at amtrak train in background

Gulfport…

wide shot showing big crowd of people with parking garage behind and amtrak train at left

Biloxi…

and Pascagoula.

closeups of people, some with signs reading "Amtrak - welcome back to Pascagoula"

About the grant

The grant is from the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program, which was created in the FAST Act (federal transportation authorization) in 2015. To secure federal funding for this specific project in a post-earmark world, T4America helped create a new national program to support it and other necessary infrastructure improvements for passenger service across the country. Washington state, California, Florida, and the District of Columbia also received CRISI grants in this batch.

The CRISI grant is the last major funding domino to fall, but everyone involved has committed resources along the way, which is perhaps the most important lesson from this story: The effort was both top-down and bottom-up. Partnerships across jurisdictions, state lines, and party lines made it possible. At the very center of that effort is our work with the Southern Rail Commission, a Congressionally established tri-state rail compact with members appointed by the governors of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Mississippi and Louisiana were out front early, committing state money to match these federal grants. Norfolk Southern, CSX, the Port of Mobile, and Amtrak also committed money to the CRISI application to complete the required match. Amtrak is training crew and preparing equipment for running the new service. This is actually not the first CRISI grant awarded to the project, and another federal grant received years ago will help cover start-up operations costs (from the Restoration and Enhancement grant program.)

What’s next for Gulf Coast rail?

Most of this grant will go toward immediate construction on improving the right-of-way and sidings on trackage owned and used by CSX and Norfolk Southern freight railroads, improving on-time performance. Amtrak is paying for the ADA-accessible platform and siding in Mobile out of their own pocket, but if Mobile wants a proper station, they will either have to build it themselves or apply for one of the available grants for doing so. All the infrastructure work will have to be done in partnership with the freight railroads, so leaders in influential places will be leaning on them to get this vital work done as fast as possible.

These new infrastructure improvements are the last barrier standing in the way of people buying a ticket and riding the rails on the Gulf Coast once again. We expect to see trains running in spring 2024.

Win after win

The last eight years have been a tremendous success for new investments in passenger rail across the country. This effort in the Gulf Coast—and its champions like Senator Wicker—have created new opportunities and federal programs (like CRISI) that are having an impact all across the country.

We’re looking forward to detailing the longer, full story of T4America’s decades-long quest to restore Gulf Coast passenger rail in some future posts so other regions can learn from their example. There are numerous benefits to expanding and improving passenger rail service, which is precisely why T4America (and Smart Growth America) have focused on it over the years. It’s a great way to better connect residents to opportunity, expand their economies, lower emissions and protect the climate, and provide another clean, efficient option for getting around—all things which are at the heart of our collective mission.

All photos by Steve Davis / Transportation for America

Amtrak’s path to world-class service

US passenger rail was the envy of the world at the turn of the 20th century. As global temperatures rise, and with the growing need to enhance intercity mobility options to get to economic and civic opportunities, it’s high time to look to and emulate our international peers in developing passenger rail: iterate, innovate, and don’t fall for the immediacy trap.

Frequent, reliable, and attractive high speed intercity rail service in Madrid, ES. T4A photo by Benito Pérez.

What do you imagine when you think of passenger rail service in the United States? Slow service, long delays, and flash frozen high-sodium food? Amtrak passengers nationwide will recognize these hallmarks of the company’s poorly-regarded passenger rail service. Repair and operational issues, such as equipment failure, staff shortages, and the conditions of rail infrastructure, contribute to delays. The result is a frustrated traveling public more likely to get in their car than take even the most convenient of train rides, leading to more driving and more emissions.

But it doesn’t need to be this way. High speed rail operations in Asia (think Japan, China) or in Europe (think the TGV in France, AVE in Spain, and many other passenger rail operators), though imperfect, have made great strides where Amtrak still lags behind. Common across these systems is an enhanced state of repair, dedicated passenger rail lines, quality user experience on the trains, and traveling speeds that rival air travel and dwarf vehicle travel. These features are the result of constant iterative processes.

A passenger walks up to the platform between two AVE trains.

Approaching the rail service platform at Atocha station in Madrid, ES. T4A photo by Benito Pérez.

With strong government support, these systems are constantly improving and reinventing themselves to focus on the customer and move them in a safe and efficient manner. They are constantly exploring service expansions to new communities to enhance mobility choice beyond the car and plane, all while exploring technological advances and infrastructure improvements to continually speed up and improve their service.

This was my experience traveling in Spain several weeks ago, taking the train from Madrid to Málaga, an otherwise 6- to 7-hour car ride covered by AVE just north of 2 hours. When you factor in time waiting at the airport, this was even less time than a flight. Along the way, I had the opportunity to dine on board, getting a freshly made sandwich, while customers were able to explore other fresh food options available.

Why has Spain successfully developed high speed rail, while Amtrak’s quality of service continues to lag behind? Looking back on the Spanish history of their rail system, starting back in the 19th century, they reached their apex in the 1950s, with 19,000 km of rail lines serving passengers. The Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s did a number to the state of repair of the rail system, forcing the government to nationalize the system by 1941. But like the US, auto ownership started to take a toll on the Spanish rail system (RENFE) in the 1950s, leading to 8,000 km of rail line to be dismantled in the coming decades.

But unlike the U.S., which took the rise in car ownership as granted and let its rail system deteriorate, Spain empowered RENFE to explore heavy investments in higher speed and capacity passenger rail starting in the 1970s. That led to a systemwide increase of rail speed to 160 kmph (100 mph, compared to Amtrak’s typical 79 mph benchmark) by 1986, and the first high speed rail line opening in 1992, followed by many more lines that have come online and are still growing across the country.

A large sandwich made of pieces of fresh ham and a baguette

Fresh Jamón Serrano sandwich aboard an AVE train. T4A photo by Benito Pérez.

Coming back stateside, I thought: why are we not emulating such a proactive iterative approach with our passenger rail system? At the dawn of railroad technology in the 1800s, the US was a world leader in passenger rail service, with frequent service along 31,000 miles of rail. But after World War II, rail companies abandoned huge segments of the rail system as the private sector turned its attention toward vehicles and aviation. Recognizing that passenger rail is a vital mobility option for many communities in the United States, Congress intervened in 1971 with the creation of Amtrak, intent on maintaining passenger rail service as an option in the United States.

Far from reversing the deterioration of national passenger rail service, the creation of Amtrak resulted in further funding cuts, which created a vicious cycle at Amtrak of poor policy and operational decisions focused solely on the bottom line versus customer experiences. As the federal government invested further into high-speed roadways for vehicles, support for passenger rail funds deteriorated, so much so that today, some members of Congress consider the mere existence of Amtrak as government waste. Detractors of passenger rail contend that millions of taxpayer dollars are pouring into passenger rail, yet are not achieving the same results as what we see with our peers abroad. Without needed funds, we see a deterioration of state of repair and safety, user experience, and eventually a loss of ridership that would help bring in needed funding.

Though the 2021 infrastructure law’s historic passenger rail funding and policy reorientation to the customer experience has the potential to interrupt that cycle, many members of Congress are intent on gutting it before those effects can take hold. The most extreme example is the House of Representatives’ 2024 Transportation Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill, which recommended nearly 70 percent in funding cuts to Amtrak.

As threats to essential air service and rural mobility options abound, America can’t afford to also lose passenger rail service, which is a valuable transportation option for the 1 million rural residents that do not have access to a vehicle. And as transportation continues to contribute to U.S. climate emissions, every American needs better options for long-distance travel than hopping into a vehicle or onto a plane.

There needs to be a fundamental reset in our mindset when it comes to passenger rail. There is a culture of immediacy with results; an expectation that existing resources should be working harder, otherwise take more resources away. If we expect American passenger rail to be world class, like it was in the late 19th century, we need to be investing in a world class way, through constant and iterative funding and innovation, not throwing the towel and staying complacent with the status quo.

A Latino man with glasses and a red coat smiles in front of rows and rows of open seats.

Policy Director Benito Pérez aboard an AVE passenger car.

How four mayors from the Deep South are leading the expansion of national passenger rail

The three mayors smile broadly in front of the U.S. Capitol building in full suits (Monroe Mayor Friday Ellis sports a cowboy hat)

The mayors of Monroe, Ruston, and Shreveport, Louisiana, have joined forces with the mayor of Vicksburg, Mississippi to fight for new Amtrak service through their communities. This move has placed these four local officials at the center of the national conversation about expanding long-distance passenger rail service.

The I-20 Corridor

Mayor Friday Ellis of Monroe, Mayor Ronny Walker of Ruston, Mayor Tom Arcenaux of Shreveport, and Mayor George Flaggs Jr. of Vicksburg are working together to establish new passenger rail service along the freight rail corridor that runs along I-20 from Meridian, MS to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (depicted below). The new service would be an expansion of Amtrak’s Crescent service through Meridian, allowing passengers along the I-20 Corridor to access Atlanta and other points north by rail.

“This route will be one more arrow in the economic quiver for small and midsize communities across the Deep South,” said Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America, in our statement in April.

On April 21, in partnership with these mayors, Amtrak and the Southern Rail Commission (SRC) submitted an application for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (Fed-State) program to study the corridor and plan for future service. This application is a huge step forward and has led to much fanfare in the cities that stand to benefit, but service isn’t guaranteed yet. First, the FRA needs to decide whether to grant the award.

So the four mayors, joined by the SRC and CPKC (the railroad set to host this new service) Assistant Vice President of US Government Affairs Arielle Giordano, traveled to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress and build a coalition of support around their application.

And we had the pleasure of escorting them around.

Map of proposed route from Fort Worth, TX to Atlanta, Georgia, with a dotted section from Shreveport to Meridian. — *Map of the I-20 Corridor. The dotted section needs infrastructure work before service can start, for which the mayors are pursuing federal funding.*

Local leaders have national impact

Mayors Ellis, Walker, Arceneaux, and Flaggs Jr. joined us in Washington, DC during the week of April 17-20 to meet with their senators and representatives as well as officials from Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to discuss the I-20 passenger rail project. They outlined the details of the project, what federal funding they need, and why the project is important to their cities.

To make their case, the mayors focused on how the new passenger rail service will fit into their communities. They each told a story about who will ride the train, for what reason, and to where. Each community’s story was different, and each contributed something different to the group’s collective argument.

Mayor Friday Ellis described how the new station would be a core piece of Monroe’s plan to revitalize its downtown. So when the train stops in Monroe, people will have dozens of options for restaurants, shops, offices, and other amenities to choose from within walking distance. This will allow families with young children, students at the University of Louisiana Monroe, and every Monroyan to better access downtown and West Monroe (across the Ouachita River). This is why Mayor Ellis often says that the people of Monroe are more excited about this project than any other.

Mayor Ronny Walker is even further along. Much of Ruston’s downtown revitalization is well underway, and the station will fit right into it. Ruston has also invested in automated vehicle transit systems to connect the station to the nearby Louisiana Tech University (which along with nearby Grambling State University is a strong supporter of the project). The Ruston station will also be directly adjacent to the Louisiana Center for the Blind and therefore serve a community that relies heavily on rail and other transit to get around.

Mayor Arcenaux in Shreveport was inaugurated in January, so he is brand new to the role. But he has already developed a strong relationship with SporTran, the city’s transit agency, which is now working on plans to connect people from all over Shreveport and neighboring Bossier City to the new station. This will improve access to goods and services for the whole community, especially for residents that do not own cars.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr., an advocate of historic preservation, has latched onto the passenger rail plan as an opportunity to efficiently bring tourists into Vicksburg’s historic downtown and its Civil War battlefield. He has been able to pitch the project as a way to meet the immense tourism demand by bringing train-loads of riders straight into downtown – taking advantage of this major advantage of passenger rail over air or road travel. This will generate economic growth in downtown Vicksburg that will benefit residents for years to come.

By telling these stories, the mayors were able to make considerable progress in the push for the I-20 Corridor—perhaps more progress than anyone else in the 30-year long effort to bring this service to the Deep South. For example, one of the most impactful visits was with two representatives from Texas whose districts would host part of the new service. None of our group was from Texas, but they made such a persuasive presentation that the two representatives decided to submit letters of support to FRA for the project. Members of Congress rarely make such commitments to non-constituents.

The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) in 2021 ushered in a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand passenger rail. But taking advantage of this $100+ billion in federal funding will require the rapid coalescence of federal, state, and local governments. Mayors Ellis, Walker, Arceneaux, and Flaggs Jr. are demonstrating that local leaders are often best suited to make that push. Our job is to help them.

See more of the mayors’ visit by clicking through the gallery below.

A group of people smile around a shiny wood table in a meeting room — (from left) SRC Chairman Knox Ross, Kay Walker, Ruston Mayor Ronny Walker, T4A Chairman John Robert Smith, U.S. Representative Nathaniel Moran (TX-01), Monroe Mayor Friday Ellis, Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux, and CPKC Assistant Vice President of US Government Affairs Arielle Giordano

Senators call on President Biden to take national approach to passenger rail

Senator Cruz smiles as he speaks into a microphone in front of a shiny backdrop

Members of the Senate are stepping up to the plate to support passenger rail service across the country. Two sign-on letters from Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the new ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, urge the administration and federal agencies to do right by the national network.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), a long-time champion of passenger rail, announced last year that he was stepping down as ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Some rail advocates were concerned that his replacement, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), would not be interested in picking up the mantle on rail.

But Senator Cruz’s first moves as ranking member—two sign-on letters advocating for Amtrak’s national network—are very encouraging. One letter calls for better representation on the Amtrak Board for the national system, while the other calls for distributing rail infrastructure dollars more equitably between the Northeast Corridor and the rest of the nation. Let’s dig in.

Letter 1: Diversify the Amtrak Board

In his first letter, Cruz points out that five of President Biden’s six nominees to the Amtrak Board of Directors are from the eight states that constitute the Northeast Corridor (NEC). He correctly argues that this violates the language laid out in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which requires a geographically diverse board, not to mention being patently unfair to the other 42 states in the Union.

Cruz’s request to the president was simple: “withdraw one of your Democratic nominees from the Northeast Corridor and replace that person with a nominee from outside the Northeast Corridor.” Six other senators signed onto this letter: Todd Young (R-IN), Roger F. Wicker (R-MS), Jerry Moran (R- KS), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and JD Vance (R-OH).

Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) recently went even further, sending the president back to the drawing board by personally blocking all of his nominees. All told, the Senate’s message to President Biden is clear: the Amtrak Board needs to represent the whole country, not just the Northeast Corridor. (Frankly, we are surprised Sen. Cruz doesn’t have partnership from other Democrats from outside the Northeast.)

Our take

Transportation for America has long maintained that for the Amtrak Board to represent the whole country, it must have members from across the whole country. T4A’s Chairman John Robert Smith served as chairman of the Amtrak Board after serving 16 years as the mayor of Meridian, Mississippi. His experience of riding Amtrak trains outside the Northeast Corridor as well as the then-new Acela service, provided him a valuable perspective that most of President Biden’s current nominees lack. For this reason, we agree wholeheartedly with Sen. Cruz’s letter.

But the letter leaves out some key issues. While those who signed this letter are right about the problem with the president’s slate of nominees, they omit the role the Senate GOP has to play. Senate Republican leadership is responsible for deciding which Republicans the president will nominate, since the Amtrak Board consists of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats. Yet the GOP has put forth only one of their four nominees and the one is from the Northeast.

In order to get a full picture of this prospective Amtrak Board, we need a full slate of nominees—Democrats and Republicans. It’s past time for Senate GOP leadership to put forward a geographically diverse slate of Amtrak Board nominees, and we would have liked to see this letter address that.

We nonetheless applaud the Senators’ efforts as well as Senator Cruz’s leadership on this issue, and will support him in holding the Biden administration to the requirements in the IIJA. He is building on the work that Sen. Wicker and Sen. Cantwell (D-Wash.) have done to steer Amtrak toward a national vision for passenger rail.

Letter 2: Spread the Fed-State wealth

In his second letter Cruz, along with his fellow committee Republicans, writes that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has inappropriately prioritized the NEC and barred the rest of the country from key infrastructure dollars. His particular gripe is with FRA’s rollout of the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail (Fed-State) program, a $43.5 billion competitive grant program that funds rail infrastructure improvements nationwide.

The IIJA states that at least 45 percent of Fed-State grants shall go to the 8 NEC states and at least 45 percent shall go to the 42 non-NEC states (the National Network). Those figures were amended in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 (the annual spending bill) to increase the maximum amount of Fed-State funding that FRA can allocate to the NEC to two-thirds of program dollars. Implicitly, that would lower the guaranteed amount of funding for the rest of the country to one third, but the law does not explicitly say that.

FRA chose to immediately use their new discretion to max out the possible funding for the NEC to two-thirds of this year’s Fed-State grants. In their notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 round of Fed-State grant applications, they broke the National Network and NEC into two separate pools of funding.

This move ensured that the NEC would receive the maximum amount of funding allowed by law (two-thirds of program dollars, or $9 billion) and the National Network would receive the minimum amount (one third of program dollars, or $4.5 billion). Cruz and his fellow Commerce Committee Republicans argue that this move essentially deprives the National Network of $7  billion worth of Fed-State funding, using a legal loophole to evade the intended use of IIJA dollars.

Our take

Senator Cruz is spot on. This issue is actually fairly simple: FRA should use its discretion to equitably balance the needs of 8 states along NEC and the 42 states in the rest of the country. The 2023 spending bill did not specifically repeal the 45 percent guarantee to the non-NEC national system and, therefore, FRA should do everything they can to adhere to that law that was passed with bipartisan support. FRA should certainly not exercise its discretion in a way that violates the written—and unamended—text in the US Code.

This letter gets at an issue we’ve harped on before: the importance of a national approach to passenger rail. One of the reasons that support for Amtrak has been so bipartisan is that it serves the whole country. If Amtrak becomes a creature of the Northeast that doesn’t care about the other 42 states, it will quickly lose political support and likely funding.

FRA’s counterargument to Sen. Cruz’s point might be that the NEC has a pipeline of large, important projects ripe for Fed-State dollars, so it should receive funding commensurate with that pipeline. But that’s because the federally-funded Northeast Corridor Commission has had 15 years to plan and develop that pipeline. The rest of the National Network is only just beginning that process, with the creation of the Interstate Rail Compact program (IRC) and Corridor Identification and Development Program (CIDP) in the IIJA. They should not be punished for chronic federal underinvestment and lack of planning support. This administration needs to focus on the national passenger rail system in a way that gives those 42 states the chance to catch up and have a fair shot at the Fed-State grants and indeed all FRA dollars.

If the FRA wants the National Network to have a better pipeline of shovel-ready projects for the Fed-State program, it can hasten the rollout of the IRC and CIDP and provide technical assistance to build momentum for passenger rail in the Deep South, the Pacific Northwest, and other regions eager to build up their rail connectivity.

Off the rails: A call for freight railroad reform

Aerial view of several rolled train cars piled on top of and near each other, with smoke, debris, and water surrounding them.

Between all seven Class I freight railroad companies, the U.S. saw over 1,000 derailments in 2022. Norfolk Southern (the company responsible for the derailment in East Palestine) had 119 by itself. Other railways had even more, like BNSF which derailed 279 times in 2022. Derailments are harmful to the supply chain at best and record-setting environmental disasters at worst. The systemic problems within the freight industry that have led to derailments also have the side-effect of delaying passenger rail service.

Last May, we announced that the Surface Transportation Board (STB) was finally taking action to improve the on-time service and safety records of freight railroads. With the recent freight disasters in East Palestine, Ohio, Springfield, Ohio, and Calhoun County, Alabama, it would seem that the freight railroads have not learned their lesson.

“Inconsistent and unreliable rail service”

On top of the freight industry’s frequent derailments and propensity to skirt regulations, the quality of their normal service is at an all-time low. Last year the National Grain and Feed Association decried three of the largest nationwide freight carriers—Union Pacific, BNSF Railway, and Norfolk Southern—for delaying shipments, resulting in the shuttering of several flour mills and livestock facilities. These delays were also a major cause of the 2022 supply chain crisis.

To hear the Surface Transportation Board (STB) say it, the freight railroad industry provides “inconsistent and unreliable rail service” that has “continued to deteriorate” in recent years. As a result, the STB continues, “shippers cannot get their products to market on time or receive essential raw materials for their companies.” This is why shippers and their customers are some of the biggest critics of freight railroad companies.

Regulators at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and STB have the power to impose safety and performance regulations on freight railroads, so why does freight continue to get away with poor safety records and low performance?

Flying in the face of regulators

The FRA is responsible for regulating the railroad industry but lacks the resources to fulfill its mandate. FRA Administrator Amit Bose, although committed to making a difference, has neither the staff nor the funding he needs to proactively regulate the freight railroads. Between responding to frequent derailments and managing a $66+ billion grant and loan program, the agency is stretched thin. FRA resources have not kept pace with their increased authority, so regulators don’t have the tools they need to push freight railroads to develop their workforce, invest in safety technology, or conduct basic infrastructure maintenance.

The freight railroad industry, in turn, has lengthened trains and reduced their workforce, a common cost-cutting practice known as precision-scheduled railroading. Railroad industry labor leaders have noted that longer trains are unwieldy and make derailments more likely. A 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found that train lengths increased across all seven Class I railroads, with some companies reporting average train lengths of 1.4 miles. The GAO, however, recommended only that FRA “work with railroads…to identify and reduce impacts of longer freight trains on highway-railroad crossings,” as FRA has little authority to do much else.

These issues are compounded by freight railroad companies’ refusal to provide basic information to federal regulators. In a filing before the STB in September, one freight railroad asserted that their rail traffic control data was confidential and proprietary and that turning it over would hinder their competitive advantage. This is simply not true, since anyone with a camera and enough time on their hands could collect most of the data that these companies claim to be secrets. But they use that line anyway, and FRA rarely has the legal authority to refute it. In the case cited above, STB only got access to the data after years of litigation.

But even when regulations exist and are enforced, they don’t work. While FRA can (and does) issue fines to freight rail companies that violate federal regulations, the penalties have little effect. Internally, freight railroad companies have long held the position that being fined by the FRA is just the cost of doing business. They factor it into their annual budgets.

Impacts on Amtrak service

Unreliable freight rail service means unreliable Amtrak service, since for the most part, Amtrak operates on tracks owned by freight companies. This problem is so pervasive that Amtrak has a dedicated page on its website to warn passengers about freight delays. They estimated that freight companies caused 900,000 minutes of delay for Amtrak passengers in 2021. Every Amtrak route outside the northeast corridor was delayed by freight trains more than 50 percent of the time in 2022.

On a personal note, I was recently on a Crescent train from DC to New Orleans to attend Amtrak’s announcement that they are pursuing new long-distance passenger rail service along the I-20 corridor from Atlanta to Dallas. But our trip was interrupted when a freight train derailed ahead of us, forcing us to disembark in Atlanta and delaying our trip.Like many passengers, I could not wait for my train to resume service, so I had to find an alternate route to my destination. I could see how that experience would make someone hesitate before riding another Amtrak train.

How can we expect to build out a national network of passenger rail if passengers cannot reliably reach their destinations even half the time? Money is not the issue. In fact, federal funding for rail remains at an all-time high. But no amount of passenger rail funding can prevent delays caused by other companies. With freight trains in the way, Amtrak is going nowhere.

Getting back on track

In recent months, federal regulators have taken some more aggressive measures to ensure safe, on-time freight rail performance. For example, the FRA recently proposed a rule that would require most trains to be staffed by at least two crewmembers. This would eliminate the most egregious instances of understaffing. But why stop there? Freight railroads—as the Biden administration has emphasized—are a crucial pillar of our national supply chain.

Recent bipartisan proposals are a good start. The Railway Safety Act introduced in the Senate by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and J.D. Vance (R-OH) and the RAIL Act introduced by Ohio Representatives in the House would tighten safety regulations: requiring two person crews, expanding the classification for highly hazardous flammable trains, and imposing bigger fines on companies that violate these rules.

But these proposals still leave FRA without the tools it needs to prevent future derailments. Congress should pass legislation granting FRA the staff, resources, and authority to proactively regulate the freight industry as the national utility and public safety hazard it is. One way to do this would be to give FRA a stronger mandate to go after “proprietary” freight railroad data.

Congress should also give Amtrak stronger authority to ensure on-time service despite freight delays on its National Network. The Rail Passenger Fairness Act (S.1500 and H.R.2937), introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. in 2021 but not passed, is a good model for future legislation.We do not need to be held hostage by freight railroads. After all, we gave them the property to build their tracks. So let’s get back on them.

Steps taken toward first expansion of passenger rail in decades

Amtrak and SRC submit a planning grant that will expand long-distance passenger rail service along the I-20 Corridor and in the Deep South.

Today, the Southern Rail Commission and Amtrak announced their application for a Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant from the Federal Railroad Administration for the I-20 Corridor—the first concrete steps to expand long-distance passenger rail service in decades. This grant would fund planning efforts for a new passenger rail service from Fort Worth, TX, across Mississippi and Louisiana, to Atlanta, GA, and is a critical step in bringing connectivity to communities along the route.

“This route will be one more arrow in the economic quiver for small and midsize communities across the Deep South,” said Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America. “We thank Amtrak for their leadership in moving this expansion forward, and we applaud Canadian Pacific for setting an example by serving as a willing and strong partner throughout this process. We look forward to seeing the completion of this route, which has been a long time coming, and hope for similar results in the greater Northwest and Mid-Atlantic, as well as all other underserved parts of the country.”

The I-20 Corridor has been previously studied twice for passenger rail and was determined to be an excellent candidate. The corridor includes numerous underserved and historically disadvantaged communities that will benefit from better transportation options. The rail line would link communities along the route to universities and larger cities, opening the door to attracting a bright young workforce, increasing economic opportunity, and bringing a sense of place to their downtowns. Amtrak’s decision to move forward with plans for the expansion comes before the FRA’s long-distance rail study, which was mandated under the 2021 infrastructure law, demonstrating tremendous initiative to move the project forward.

Partnerships between freight companies and passenger rail providers have been pivotal in moving this expansion along. Freight railroad Canadian Pacific acquired the route from KC Southern, and they’ve proven to be a willing and supportive partner to passenger rail. They will work to implement service for at least one round trip per year within two years, and two round trips within four years.

Once-in-a-generation opportunities in passenger rail—but the time to act is now

T4America works with partners all over the country to develop passenger rail service, and we’re telling them all the same thing: now is the time to act. We’ve never seen this amount of support for passenger rail from Congress and the Federal Railroad Administration, and federal funding is there. But there’s a procedure—with deadlines—to follow. Here’s how to take advantage in the year ahead.

*Amtrak Cascades at Mt. Vernon station. Photo via Flickr/Joe A. Kunzler Photo*

Legislative and administrative stars aligning

For decades, the development of a national passenger rail system has been low on the priority list for Congress. Who could blame them? So many of their districts are poorly served, and Amtrak focused almost exclusively on the Northeast Corridor and left the rest of the country out to dry. (Read more about the history of Amtrak and Congress here.)

In 2021, despite Amtrak’s lack of focus on the national system, Congress made leaps and bounds in their support for passenger rail by passing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which funded the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and Amtrak at historic levels. The IIJA also re-oriented the mission of the national passenger rail system toward serving more communities, both urban and rural, across the country. In the past, Amtrak has been required to make a profit—unlike other modes of transportation—above all other goals, often to the detriment of its riders.

If Amtrak, states, interstate compacts, regional passenger rail authorities, and localities play their cards right, these historic funding levels coming from the FRA and the renewed national mandate for Amtrak can result in a much improved and expanded national network of passenger rail. The IIJA charted out a process for this expansion, which focuses infrastructure improvements to passenger rail corridors within interstate compacts. We have narrowed this process down to three steps, which we outline below.

Step 1: Corridors

The first and most immediate step in advancing passenger rail service across the country is the identification and development of passenger rail corridors. The IIJA created the Corridor Identification and Development Program (CIDP), which is designed to focus federal funding on key passenger rail corridors across the country. The term “corridor” refers to a stretch of rail right of way where applicants can build or improve station stops—as well as the rail infrastructure between them—to give more people access to the route.

Where will these corridors be built? The short answer is: we’ll have to wait and see. States, localities, interstate compacts, or other applicants will determine where they want to establish corridors based on many economic and social factors. But the possibilities are immense. FRA has challenged state and local leaders to, in their words, “dream big” with the CIDP. Governments from around the country have already expressed their interest in developing corridors, which Amtrak presented during a public board meeting in December (rendering of Amtrak’s map pictured below, with potential corridors in light blue).

*Recreation of map presented at Amtrak’s public board meeting (Source:* *Ryan C on Twitter*)

As an incentive to create official corridors, the FRA is offering successful applicants $500,000 in no-match federal funds to start planning their corridors. New corridors will also get preferential treatment during future federal grant applications. These incentives are what make applying to the CIDP a critical next step for the development of passenger rail service.

The CIDP is currently open, with applications due March 20.

Step 2: Infrastructure improvements

Officially recognized passenger rail compacts and corridors will be at the front of the line at FRA for funding opportunities. The IIJA greatly expanded the two main federal passenger rail infrastructure programs: the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Program (Partnership Program) and the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program. This should encourage regional, state, and local governments to apply, given that the possibility of receiving an award is higher than it ever has been.

The Partnership Program is live right now, with applications due on March 7.

These funding opportunities can be used to plan for, design, and construct grade crossing eliminations, stations and multimodal station areas, track improvements, and create capacity improvements (addressing bottlenecks). These improvements are all critical for the safety and viability of passenger rail service on new and expanded corridors. In addition to these infrastructure improvements, compacts and corridors will have priority in applying for operational support through programs like the Restoration and Enhancement (R&E) Program to begin to operate new or restored passenger rail service.

Step 3: Compacts

In order to solidify the gains made from forming corridors and funding infrastructure improvements, interested states should form interstate rail compacts. The IIJA created the Interstate Rail Compact Program (IRC) to help states work together to further the development of regional passenger rail networks across the country.

The IRC Program is seeking to build off the success of interstate rail compacts like the Southern Rail Commission (SRC), the oldest rail compact in the country. The SRC consists of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and works to coordinate stakeholders in those three states to restore passenger rail service throughout the deep south. Watch this video to see the SRC’s work in action.

Through the IRC, the FRA is seeking to create 10 such compacts (SRC included) to serve 10 different regions across the country. During the formation process, the FRA will support these compacts in building coalitions of support, identifying opportunities for new or restored passenger rail service, and pursuing federal funding.

The IRC is likely to open later this year.

Support is fleeting

Congress is changing hands. Sam Graves, who has little to no track record on passenger rail, is the new chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. We expect Ted Cruz—an opponent of passenger rail—to run the Senate Commerce Committee if Republicans take the Senate next cycle.

This constant shuffle in Congress means that, at any moment, the programs generously funded by the IIJA could once again be defunded. So while the IRC and CIDP will be available in coming years, this year is the only guaranteed opportunity for full program funding and support from the FRA.

Local advocates have opportunities to get involved as well. Round up your state or regional passenger rail authority. If you’re looking to get long-distance service, find ways to participate in the FRA’s Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study. If you want to see your community served by new or improved passenger rail corridors, now is the time to go out and get things moving.

A Gulf Coast win opens the door for national long-distance passenger rail service

On Monday, CSX, Norfolk Southern, the Alabama State Port Authority, and Amtrak filed a motion to the Surface Transportation Board stating that they’d reached an agreement to restore passenger rail service on the Gulf Coast. In response, Transportation for America Director Beth Osborne issued the following statement:

Transportation for America is pleased that the Port of Mobile, CSX, and Norfolk Southern have reached an agreement with Amtrak, clearing the way for Amtrak to restore the long-awaited passenger rail service on the Gulf Coast. This settlement is a tremendous victory for the Gulf, but its impact extends beyond those states. The restoration of this service is pivotal for expanding passenger service across the nation, making good on the promise of the 2021 infrastructure law.
This settlement is a clear indication that we can find mutually-agreeable resolutions that benefit both freight and passenger rail—shippers and the people they serve. We thank the Federal Railroad Administration for making a strong stand to precisely that effect. We also commend the Surface Transportation Board for their leadership in guiding the parties through mediation to reach this agreement.
For freight, this is an opportunity to strengthen their partnerships with elected officials. For Amtrak, it is a call to action for the Board to use their collective authority to further the expansion of passenger rail. Urban and rural communities across the country have been closely monitoring this process, and they can now look at this agreement with hope for the expansion of passenger rail. We stand ready to help them achieve this goal.

A blueprint for Amtrak success from T4A Chair John Robert Smith

Amtrak has a workforce crisis on its hands. While the COVID-19 pandemic brought many of these problems to light, it did not create them. Mistakes by Amtrak’s leadership long before COVID-19 led to a slowly diminishing workforce and service impacts, which the pandemic exacerbated. Now, with a historic federal investment in passenger rail, how can Amtrak pivot and get back on the right track? The answer may lie in the company’s recent history.

John Robert Smith is Chair of T4America and policy advisor for Smart Growth America. He served for 16 years as mayor of Meridian, MS, whose Union Station, his signature project, is recognized as one of the best multi-modal transportation centers in the country. He then served on the Amtrak Board of Directors, where he shepherded the company through Congressional defunding, the launch of Acela, and the restoration of 7 day/week national service. At T4A, he now advocates for more equitable and regionally diverse expansion of national passenger rail service.

The history: Amtrak in crisis

In 1995, federal budget cuts slashed Amtrak’s budget to $750 million, a six-year low. Amtrak, facing Congressional pressure to reduce its expenses but wishing to preserve full Northeast Corridor service, suspended service from seven days per week to three days per week along much of the national network.

For John Robert Smith, then mayor of Meridian, Mississippi, that was an unworkable plan. He was overseeing the construction of the South’s first multimodal transportation center, with the city’s Union Station at its center. He knew, having planned for seven day/week rail service through his city, that cutting service to less than half would be an inefficient use of Amtrak’s resources, which would sit idle when not in service, still incurring fixed expenses. He watched Amtrak cut its workforce and service nationwide and feared this would cause long-term losses in ridership and not result in the cost savings Amtrak thought it would.

His fears came to pass. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that “during fiscal year 1996, Amtrak’s overall ridership dropped by 1.1 million passengers, or 5 percent, and anticipated reductions in operating costs were not realized on routes with reduced frequency of service.” Testifying before Congress in 2000, Amtrak President George Warrington admitted that “all of those eliminations back in 1995 and 1996 ended up costing the company more in lost revenue than we were able to take out in the way of expenses, given the fixed-cost nature of the operation.”

The change: Better trains, regardless of funding

Recognized by Congress for his successes in building the South’s first multimodal transportation center, Smith was appointed to the Amtrak Board of Directors in 1998. This meant he was thrust into the center of the effort to recover from the disastrous decisions made by Amtrak in 1995. He knew that three day per week service would result in inefficient use of staff and equipment. So he built relationships with both sides of the aisle in Congress, convincing Senate leaders to restore Amtrak’s national seven day per week service to much of the national network. For example, opposition to Amtrak funding had mostly come from Republicans, so Smith spoke with his senator, Trent Lott (R-MS), about the economic benefits of passenger rail for Mississippi, turning Lott into an ally within the party.

But Smith learned from very early on that Amtrak could not rely on steady funding to provide high-quality service. In 2000, Congress defunded Amtrak yet again, this time right before it launched the new high-speed Acela service (to much fanfare). While they did not have the money to boost the service as much as they would like, Amtrak was nonetheless dedicated to running high-quality trains. The Board personally ensured that on-board service on Acela trains would meet customer needs. They persistently marketed Acela as faster than air travel, even issuing a challenge for two reporters to race from the Washington, DC city center to Boston’s city center, one by airplane and one by Acela. The reporter on Acela arrived in Boston first. With airports located far from city centers and delays from air traffic control, weather, and security screenings, air travel was slower than Acela.

When Smith became Chairman of the Amtrak Board in 2002, the company had yet to fully recover from the previous decade’s workforce cuts despite eventually restoring Congressional funding. But Amtrak’s new president, David Gunn, was committed to building a stronger workforce from the ground up. Gunn visited railyards at 4:30 every morning to talk with the crews. He was committed to riding Amtrak to attend meetings so he could witness first hand the problems facing on-board crews. Morale among Amtrak’s labor force was high. Some employees printed t-shirts that read “Proud to Be Working Under the Gunn.”

Year to year, Amtrak’s ridership does not have a strong impact on its revenue. (Source: 2017 CRS report)

Due to the lapses in funding, Smith and Gunn often had to confront the possibility of bankruptcy. During the worst of their fiscal crisis, in the summer of 2002, they worked with the Bush Administration to secure an emergency $100 million loan to keep the company afloat. The loan conditions were hard, but the money kept Amtrak running and was critical to the rebuilding effort.

Despite stagnant federal support, high morale among workers translated to high-quality service. By 2007, Amtrak’s ridership reached a 15-year high. Despite some pressure to invest only in the “profitable” Northeast Corridor, Smith and the rest of the Board knew better. They had ridden the trains with their long-distance customers, who they knew would be loyal to Amtrak if Amtrak took care of them. Their success, on top of the honest relationships with Congressional staff built by Amtrak’s director of Government Affairs Joe McHugh, created trust in the halls of Congress. Smith, Gunn, and McHugh were able to convince senators like Lott, Frank Lautenburg (D-NJ), and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), who had little else in common, to serve as Congressional champions for Amtrak service through each others’ states. Smith, Gunn, and McHugh also developed relationships with Senate Appropriations leaders Robert Byrd (D-WV) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) to ensure stable federal funding for years to come.

Throughout his tenure on the Amtrak Board of Directors, John Robert Smith believed in long distance service and its ability to support the rest of the organization. Smith’s trust in the loyalty of long distance customers was later vindicated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Amtrak was kept afloat largely by its long-distance customers outside the Northeast Corridor. As ridership continued to be depressed on the Northeast Corridor and state supported lines in April 2020, ticket revenues from long-distance trains rebounded much quicker, jumping 71 percent, from $6.8 million to $11.6 million.

Today: History repeats itself

The progress made by Amtrak leaders like Smith and Gunn is threatened by an Amtrak leadership that is repeating the mistakes the company made in the 1990s by once again furloughing much of its workforce and defunding its long-distance network.

*Graphic detailing long distance service, from Amtrak’s FY 2021 Company Profile, showing the positive effect long distance service has on the company’s revenue.*

When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States in 2020, Amtrak leadership decided to furlough 11 percent of its workforce, with another 20 percent reduction in 2021. These reductions mostly affected the company’s loyal long distance customers despite overwhelming evidence that these types of actions do not reduce long-term expenses and can indeed make service recovery much more difficult. Now crews are demoralized, evidenced by Amtrak’s struggle to attract furloughed employees back to their jobs. Remaining staff are overworked, threatening safety and customer care.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorized a record $2.2 billion in annual funding for the national network, twice that of the Northeast Corridor. But as Amtrak proved in the late 1990s and early 2000s, funding does not guarantee high-quality service. And Amtrak is going in the wrong direction. Facing a drop in revenue due to the coronavirus Omicron variant in early 2022, Amtrak once again slashed long-distance service, hurting its most loyal customers. Many long distance routes have yet to recover.

John Robert Smith’s simple message for today’s Amtrak leadership

“Ride the trains unannounced and individually. See the same service your customer does. Ride lines other than the Northeast Corridor, and more than once. Leaders like myself and David Gunn knew what the company’s workforce and riders needed to thrive because we used the service we were providing nationwide. We moved our monthly board meetings out of Washington two or three times per year and traveled there on our trains.
Talk to the crews. Ask what they need. Ask them what it’s like to work an entire train alone. Talk to coach passengers who are not allowed to purchase meals from the diner if they don’t carry cash or if delays cause passengers to board after food service has ended. Many of them, especially along lower-income, more rural sections of the national network, do not own a credit card. Eat the food on the trains, which is often unhealthy and undesirable.
Focus on long-distance service. We’re seeing an increase in remote work, so business and commuter passengers might not come back to riding Amtrak. But long-distance passengers have proven their desire for more frequent trips.”

As Amtrak has proven in the past, success with long-distance customers can translate into success in Congress. Amtrak developed champions like Trent Lott and Frank Lautenburg in the past, and can develop champions like Roger Wicker and Maria Cantwell today. If Amtrak engages with its passengers and provides regionally diverse service, it can make passenger rail an issue of national consensus with allies across the aisle.

None of these goals are easy to achieve. They will require diligent time and effort. But they will pay off. At a time when Amtrak has unprecedented funding and national attention, the moment is too great to pass up.

The STB is finally acting to improve freight railroads. Will it be enough?

After years of looking the other way while deliveries suffered, the Surface Transportation Board finally ruled that freight railroads have to improve their service. Here’s what it could mean for goods and travelers alike.

On Friday, May 6, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) issued a ruling that will require the largest (Class I) freight railroads to improve their anemic service nationwide. These companies are BNSF Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway Company (KCS), CSX Transportation, Inc, Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Canadian National Railway (CN), and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP).

Under this latest STB ruling, the four Class I carriers with the most significant problems—BNSF, CSX, NS, and UP—will need to submit service recovery plans detailing the specific actions they’ll each take to improve service, including the specific metrics they’ll use to evaluate their progress. Those four will also have to participate in biweekly conference calls with Board staff to ensure they are making significant progress. All seven Class I carriers will be required to submit weekly performance data and monthly employment data to the STB. The STB will receive technical assistance from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) in its implementation of this ruling.

Turning the tide

For years, the major freight railroads have trimmed their workforce and overworked remaining staff to report larger profit margins to shareholders, all without regard for service quality. The pandemic has worsened this issue, causing frequent and extended delays in delivery time for key goods and services. For such a critical national system as freight rail, this has been an economic disaster.

On April 26th and 27th, the four relevant freight railroads testified in front of the STB and admitted their poor service, but they tried to blame national trends and claim they could fix the issues on their own. However, the testimony they gave, such as frequency data that was contradicted by video evidence, was often uninformed and irrelevant, calling into question the validity of their commitments to improve service. The STB likely felt the same, as this aggressive ruling reflects a lack of faith in the freight railroads to address the current crisis.

Though this ruling is not surprising, it is encouraging. We are pleased to see the STB finally exercising their oversight in a clear and demonstrable way, revealing their intent to monitor and fix this endemic issue. They have always had the authority, but have historically been far too lenient on the freight railroads, which allowed the situation to get to its current point.

On May 12th, STB chairman Martin Oberman testified in front of the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he laid out a vision for a more aggressive STB. He said the STB can and must go further than rulings like this one, and said that “the Board can use its existing authority to mitigate [the problems facing the rail industry] in a meaningful way.”

We should take these bold statements with a grain of salt. The freight rail industry has not been interested in complying with federal regulations unless forced to do so, so this will likely be a long and drawn out fight despite Chairman Oberman’s commitment to a rapid timeline.

But still, such a bold step from the STB signals a paradigm shift. In the past, the STB has been all but powerless to stop the dominance of the freight railroad companies over the national rail network. But a network so critical to national security should be regulated accordingly, and the STB seems to finally be arriving at the same conclusion.

Impact on passenger rail

This ruling and its implementation might have some benefits for passenger rail, too. For most of the national network, passenger rail service runs on rail owned by the Class I carriers. So if freight railroads continue to be required to improve service, it might improve conditions on the nation’s rail network enough to support improved passenger rail service. In fact, in Chairman Oberman’s testimony, he added that he remains “confident in the Board’s preparedness to meet its responsibility to enforce on-time passenger rail performance.”