Amtrak: Connects US // American Jobs Plan Infrastructure Legislation

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 7:31 am What I'm "in the dark" about at this time, is how much, if any, does this soon to be enacted legislation represent an "Appropriation" (you WILL spend this amount of $$$$ on these particular projects) or an "Authorization" (it would be nice to spend "this" on "that" in the years ahead).

So far as Bernie's, Liz's, and "The Squad's" social legislation, just take that "piece by piece". I think a strategy of "fly it under the radar" would be best for its proponents.

Mr. Norman I wonder how AOC’s NYC voters will feel about the Squad’s vote given how much it benefits NY - Nancy had made a last minute deal between the moderates and progressive caucus that the moderates would publicly state they will support the “human infrastructure” bill by thanksgiving after CBO scoring. All the progressives except the squad went from no to yes with this deal. And the 13 republicans that voted yes made up the difference.

As for authorization/appropriation it’s both. This bill does include the multi year reauthorization of the FAST act surface transportation programs including PRIIA which includes new authorized funding levels for Amtrak and other programs. It’s essentially a combination of reauthorization and a large one time appropriation for infrastructure stimulus. This bill includes direct supplemental appropriations to Amtrak for the national network and corridor which is supposed to be used for infrastructure and re-fleeting and a large swath of cash goes towards a grant program where states can apply for funding for rail projects. A large portion of the grant program is stated for gateway and other NEC projects and a certain amount is reserved for non NEC state projects.

Some reporting:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/transpor ... buttigieg/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... -is-in-it/

Mr. Lord, what I think is sad is that had Miss COVID not come a callin' and traffic remained at '19 levels, Amtrak could have gone to the private capital markets to acquire new equipment, such as the 83 seven car Corridor sets (funny how the Austrian and Czech Rail Jet sets are also seven cars and also Siemens design) which would have allowed the appropriated funds to be used for other projects.

Here is the breakdown courtesy of rail passengers. Most of the gateway money and other NEC money comes from the “fed-state partnership” line. Shared NEC assets would fall under this - the direct Amtrak NEC is for rolling stock and other sole use assets.

A further clarification - the the top section is the new annual authorization amounts and actual money is subject to annual appropriations - the lower section is what is directly funded from this bill.

Pensyfan19 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 6:42 am Hooray! After almost a full year of negotiating with the Republicans, the Democrats managed to pass a $1.75 trillion infrastructure bill instead if the original $5 trillion! I'm guessing rail has something in the likes of just over $75 billion in whole? Amtrak still needs their $66 billion in order to be properly maintained.

At this rate, enough will never be enough to bring passenger rail to its full potential, including HSR, while funded by the government since funding has to be considered with other programs which have to be funded. In order to allow for expansion to 1940s levels of frequent passenger service and improved quality, this would require at least a few trillion for the passenger rail industry alone, which would either involve cutting funding for other programs or substantially raising taxes: both of which will be met with fierce opposition from politics and NIMBYS alike.

This nation should be encouraging private investment in passenger rail and infrastructure instead of relying on the government to slowly debate and eventually build it over the course of 10+ years for any given project. This way, each company can focus on improving frequency and quality in a designated region instead of the whole nation. This is a concept I've stated too many times on this site, and it should seriously be considered in order to bring the passenger rail sector back to its full potential.

You might want to check what was actually passed. It's the much smaller infrastructure bill passed by the Senate with some Republican support months ago. The amount you referred to is for a bill covering all sorts of other things that may or may not make it through the Senate.

The bill that President Biden will soon sign will help - but the total amount going to rail is nowhere near what passenger, commuter rail and mass transit need. But far better than nothing.

lordsigma12345 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 06, 2021 11:22 am

Here is the breakdown courtesy of rail passengers.

Interesting chart. At the top it states a 5 year total. At the bottom which is unstated, but as I understood it, the Bipartisan Bill is over 10 years. So now I confused...... is that a 5 year expenditure total at the bottom, or 10 years? And will there be additional funding from the yearly budgets 6-10 years hence?

It is confusing, but it looks like Amtrak gets very little extra money, nowhere near enough to make a difference, let alone do any expansion. I seem to recall that there were hopes that there would be more money in the reconciliation bill that was supposed to at one time also include more infrastructure, but now seems mainly about things like pre-K and various social things (no comment offered on those, especially since it's not finalized).

Well I guess that within $36B Federal State Partnership noted by Mr. Lord, there is enough for Gateway, Portal, and B&P. I suppose addressing S-curves at LIZ and Frankford is "a bridge too far".

If all were addressed, then I think the PRR side of the Corridor would approach what presently exists in Austria - a sovereignty that does not make any claims to have HSR.

Now this of course is "just me"; but the National Network line should simply be $0. It is time to start doing what the intent was 45 years ago - an orderly discontinuance of these routes that probably would take some fifteen years. I do think that "busteetoots" ought to be established (unlike Canada, there is no Amtrak station that cannot be reached by public highway) to "ease the pain" on the "can't drive, won't fly" segment. If any new equipment is needed for the National Network during its phase out, that equipment should be designed so that it can be readily converted to Short Distance ("Corridor") service.

Finally, let us not forget; so many legislators vote on legislation for reasons beyond their "conscience" - that is simply what you tell "the folks back home". So often its a case of "you'll find out what's in the legislation after you have voted for it".

IIJA21 will be no exception.

I've seen a theory that the national network is mainly in service for pork-barrel value, to get into as many states and Congressional districts as possible. With that in mind, we can assess the railroad's success in doing so.

We must leave out the two OCONUS states, Alaska and Hawaii. OCONUS is DOD-speak for Outside of CONUS, the 48 contiguous US states. Alaska has its Alaska Railroad and Hawaii is not very suited for statewide railroad service -- it is several islands separated by distances comparable to the lengths of the longest railroad tunnels. One of the islands, Oahu, has nearly 3/4 of the state's population.

There are two states without any Amtrak route going through them, South Dakota and Wyoming, and consulting List of Amtrak stations - Wikipedia I find that every other CONUS state has at least one Amtrak station in it.

Looking in the House, Why is funding Amtrak such a struggle? Because Republican districts don’t use it. - The Washington Post

Of the 435 House districts, 184 have no Amtrak stations in them. Leaving out the 3 OCONUS ones gives 181 out of 432, a little over 2/5. Some of these districts are in urban and suburban areas that are near stations without including any stations, areas like the outer NYC boroughs. But many of them are in rural areas, as is evident from the WaPo's map. If I had district-shapefile and population and urban-rail data, I could calculate which ones are far from some Amtrak station.

The bill itself: H.R.3684 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act | Congress.gov | Library of Congress

That page has a summary of the bill. To get the full text, click on the "Text" tab in the list of tabs just above the summary text.

In the Northeast Corridor,

(1) acquiring new passenger rolling stock for the replacement
of single-level passenger cars used in Amtrak's Northeast Corridor
services, and associated rehabilitation, upgrade, and expansion of
facilities used to maintain and store such equipment;
(2) bringing Amtrak-served stations to full compliance with the
Americans with Disabilities Act;
(3) eliminating the backlog of deferred capital work on sole-
benefit Amtrak-owned assets located on the Northeast Corridor; or
(4) carrying out Northeast Corridor capital renewal backlog
projects:

Out of the NEC,

(1) acquiring new passenger rolling stock to replace obsolete
passenger equipment used in Amtrak's long-distance and state-
supported services, and associated rehabilitation, upgrade, or
expansion of facilities used to maintain and store such equipment;
(2) bringing Amtrak-served stations to full compliance with the
Americans with Disabilities Act;
(3) eliminating the backlog of deferred capital work on Amtrak-
owned railroad assets not located on the Northeast Corridor; and
(4) projects to eliminate the backlog of obsolete assets
associated with Amtrak's national rail passenger transportation
system, such as systems for reservations, security, training
centers, and technology:

Infrastructure Bill Gives Amtrak $66 Billion - The New York Times - from last August

The bipartisan infrastructure bill includes $66 billion in new funding for rail to address Amtrak’s maintenance backlog, along with upgrading the high-traffic Northeast Corridor from Washington to Boston. It also proposes several changes to the legal mission of Amtrak, which rail experts hailed as a win for passenger rail.

The bill includes new language that would change Amtrak’s goal to “meet the intercity passenger rail needs of the United States” rather than achieving “a performance level sufficient to justify expending public money.” It would also add language that prioritizes service in rural areas in addition to urban ones.

That language survived into the final bill.

(a) Findings.--Section 24101(a) of title 49, United States Code, is
amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking ``between crowded urban areas
and in other areas of'' and inserting ``throughout'';
(2) in paragraph (4), by striking ``to Amtrak to achieve a
performance level sufficient to justify expending public money''
and inserting ``in order to meet the intercity passenger rail needs
of the United States'';
(3) in paragraph (5)--
(A) by inserting ``intercity passenger and'' before
``commuter''; and
(B) by inserting ``and rural'' after ``major urban;'' and
(4) by adding at the end the following:
``(9) Long-distance routes are valuable resources of the United
States that are used by rural and urban communities.''.

Amtrak chief thrilled by Biden's infrastructure deal - Axios

Details: About half of the money targeted for Amtrak would go to expanding intercity passenger rail across the U.S. — targeting places where there are now few or no routes.

"Phoenix to Tucson is a great example," Flynn said. "Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati. Los Angeles to Las Vegas."
As for a dream stop that doesn't currently exist: "I think Nashville would be a great place to stop. I mean, how many country-western songs involve trains?"

Here is a comprehensive article from this past Sunday's Times showing how after IIJA21 enactment, the parties in interest will be clamoring within the scope of the legislation for funds. Here is what the article says regarding Gateway:

New Jersey, for example, could tap the new funds to help construct the proposed Gateway Tunnel, easing chronic congestion on the train route that links the state’s population centers to New York. Nearly a decade after Hurricane Sandy flooded the tunnel to New York, leaving structural damage, progress has stalled amid estimates of up to $13 billion to complete repairs.

How Biden’s infrastructure win falls short in one big area - POLITICO - "The bill is historic in its scope with $550 billion in new money funneled into hard infrastructure, from overhauling bridges to supercharging Amtrak's most popular rail corridor in the Northeast."

I read the article, and it mentioned some projects that its money could go to, but no money seems committed to any specific project. The same was true of the final bill, as far as I could tell. No commitment of money to the Gateway Project, for instance.

Gilbert Norman's link with its original title: This Is Where the States Want Billions in Infrastructure Funding Spent - The New York Times -- I use a Firefox extension called "Copy URL to Clipboard". There are similar extensions now available for Chrome, Opera, and in an imperfect form, Safari.