Passenger rail keeps chugging forward during Infrastructure Week

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At Route Fifty, we mark another Infrastructure Week with a look at the roll-out of passenger rail expansions nationwide. Rail has been a major focus for many state and local officials since President Joe Biden took office.

Biden, of course, famously commuted by train from Delaware to Washington, D.C., for decades while he was a U.S. senator. His passion for passenger rail has been on display while he’s been in the White House, particularly with his 2021 infrastructure law including $66 billion for rail improvements.

Many of those efforts have reached significant milestones in recent weeks, from construction on the Northeast Corridor to new funding on Colorado’s Front Range.

But money is only one obstacle to building a cross-country network of passenger rail services that people can rely on in addition to driving or flying from one city to another. Freight railroads own almost all of the track in the country, and Amtrak or other passenger carriers have to coordinate with them to add more service.

That’s no small task, which is probably why places with the most advanced plans to deliver reliable, high-speed passenger rail are those that operate on their own tracks (Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, Brightline’s Miami-to-Orlando route, Brightline West’s planned service between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, and California High-Speed Rail’s plan to link San Francisco and L.A.).

New routes also need local champions, sustained effort and a lot of time. That said, rail advocates have notched some wins recently.

The Northeast Corridor

One of those wins came this week in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. As Route Fifty reported, the Federal Railroad Administration announced Tuesday that it is making another $2 billion available for improvements along the Acela corridor. That follows the announcement in November of an “unprecedented” $16 billion in new federal grants for the Boston-to-Washington route.

New Jersey officials this week celebrated a significant achievement in improving the Northeast Corridor. Construction is halfway complete on the new Portal Bridge that crosses the Hackensack River a few miles south of New York City. The current breakdown-prone bridge is 114 years old and has to swing to let vessels in the river below pass through, disrupting rail service. The new bridge will be nearly twice as tall, so it won’t have to open and close for boats.

It is a significant stretch of track for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, and its replacement is part of the Gateway Project that aims to increase capacity into New York’s Penn Station, in part by adding new tunnels under the Hudson River.

“Less than two years after officially breaking ground in August 2022, NJ Transit is pleased to be able to demonstrate that mega-projects in the Northeast can be advanced on time and on budget,” said Kevin Corbett, president and CEO of NJ Transit.

“New Jersey’s own Bon Jovi sang about being ‘halfway there,’” quipped U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat. “But we are not living on any prayer—this new bridge is a reality.”

New Funding in Colorado 

Rail service linking Denver to other cities along Colorado’s Front Range is closer to reality. As part of a banner year of legislative victories for Gov. Jared Polis, new $3-per-day fees on car rentals will help generate money for the line, which will connect Pueblo, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins to Denver. The 173-mile route would serve a majority of the state’s population. Polis signed the legislation at Denver’s Union Station.

“Front Range Passenger Rail is a critical way to make Colorado more sustainable, affordable and livable,” he said in a statement. “High-quality service will allow Coloradans from every corner of our state to travel with ease to enjoy everything our communities have to offer. Today we are closer to this reality than ever.”

The new revenues come as local officials gear up for a potential ballot measure this fall to raise more money to run the service. One question is whether it is better to start with a “starter service,” which would still cost $2 billion to $6 billion, that would use existing freight tracks, or to “go big” with separate tracks for passenger trains, reports The Denver Post. 

“The risks are in losing the momentum. People are interested in this right now. We have state-supported dollars coming through the legislature. There are federal dollars available. All of this leads toward action,” Andy Karsian, manager of the Front Range Passenger Rail District, told the Post. “If we wait, then we possibly lose that momentum over the next couple of years.”

Potential Amtrak Return to Southern Montana

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg bolstered the hopes of rail advocates in Montana who are hoping trains could better connect the larger population centers in Big Sky Country. The cabinet secretary didn’t comment specifically about Montana’s rail proposals during a visit to the state last week, but local advocates said his agency is on board with their priorities.

A federal rail study identified two potential corridors for expansion: an east-west route once served by Amtrak known as the North Coast Hiawatha and a north-south line that would connect Billings to Denver or El Paso.

“If folks are wondering about feasibility or not, that train has left the station,” said Dave Strohmaier, chair of the Big Sky Rail Authority, according to the Daily Montanan. “We are no longer debating feasibility. We are in the planning stage as we speak to make this happen.”

Mobile, Alabama, Gets on Board, Finally 

Officials in Louisiana and Mississippi have long clamored for the return of Amtrak service along the Gulf Coast, which stopped nearly two decades ago because of damage from Hurricane Katrina. They faced down two freight railroads over costs and finally reached a confidential settlement with the carriers two years ago. But one obstacle remained: the city of Mobile, where the trains would terminate, would not allow the construction of a new train station.

But last week, Amtrak notched a significant win by getting permission from the city’s zoning board to build a train depot. It’s designed as a temporary structure until funding can be found for a permanent replacement. And before it’s constructed, it still needs the sign off from the city council, notes John Sharp, a reporter for AL.com who has covered the dispute for years.

Still, advocates found plenty to cheer about. “It’s a milestone day for Amtrak, the Southern Rail Commission, and the city of Mobile,” said Ray Lang, vice-president of state supported services at Amtrak.

New Service in the Midwest 

In the works since 2013, Amtrak announced earlier this month that it would be running a second daily train between St. Paul and Chicago starting this Tuesday, May 21. The state-supported Borealis trains leave St. Paul at midday and Chicago in the late morning. It will give travelers another rail option between the two cities, in addition to Amtrak’s Empire Builder route, which goes all the way to the Pacific Northwest.

Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois state governments sponsored the Borealis service, the standard practice for Amtrak’s shorter routes.

“This route includes eight stations in Wisconsin, and doubling the frequency of the service will better connect the many businesses, universities and tourist attractions along this corridor,” noted Craig Thompson, the secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

‘Georgia is a Missing Piece’

Federal Railroad Administrator Amit Bose administered some tough love for Georgia business and political leaders last week. He said Georgia is losing ground compared to other Southern states when it comes to building out its passenger rail network, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting. Many regional leaders want to start service between Atlanta and Savannah, a line that is still in its planning stages.

“Virginia and North Carolina have made the investment in rail,” Bose said. “It wasn’t easy. And they did it on a bipartisan basis. Republicans, Democrats working together. They are years ahead of Georgia when it comes to passenger rail.”

“Unquestionably, Georgia is a missing piece, or could be a more full piece of the passenger rail network that we have in this country,” he added.

Keep reading as there’s more news to use below, and if you don’t already and would prefer to get this roundup in your inbox, you can subscribe to this newsletter here. We’ll see you next week.

News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

• MARIJUANA: Biden moves to relax restrictions on cannabis. The Biden administration proposed on Thursday to downgrade marijuana from the most restrictive category of drugs. The rule, submitted to the Federal Register, is subject to a 60-day comment period, kicking off a lengthy approval process before it takes effect. The proposal, which would move marijuana to Schedule III, from Schedule I, would not make it federally legal, but would lessen the tax burden on state-legal cannabis companies and make marijuana easier to research. The move would mark the biggest change in federal drug policy in more than half a century. Meanwhile, Minnesota has expunged nearly 58,000 misdemeanor cannabis records ahead of schedule, state officials announced Monday. The process of expunging such records is required under the state's recreational marijuana law. Officials had expected to finish the work by August.


• UNIONS: Mercedes workers vote no to union, putting the brakes on UAW's march South. In a closely watched vote, workers at a Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, rejected joining the United Auto Workers union, by a vote of 2,642 to 2,045. The defeat for the UAW comes just weeks after it notched its first major victory unionizing a Southern auto plant, when Volkswagen factory workers in Tennessee overwhelmingly approved union representation. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican who fought the unionization effort vociferously, hailed the outcome. “The workers in Vance have spoken, and they have spoken clearly! Alabama is not Michigan, and we are not the Sweet Home to the UAW,” she wrote on social media. “We urge the UAW to respect the results of this secret ballot election.” Republican officials in the South have sought to discourage the growth of labor unions there, even threatening to revoke tax breaks for automakers if they don’t require secret ballots. 


• POPULATION: U.S. cities see more post-pandemic population improvement. A modest post-pandemic rebound of U.S. cities continued from 2022 to 2023 as many large cities added to their populations, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The South continued to lead population growth nationwide. Overall U.S. population growth also accelerated, with metropolitan areas growing slightly faster than rural America. Those areas included Washington, D.C., and Boston. Notably, Detroit recorded population growth for the first time in close to seven decades, reaching more than 633,000 residents. Cities with 250,000 people or more whose populations were hit hard by the pandemic but have shown new growth include Atlanta, Minneapolis, D.C. and Raleigh, N.C. On average, cities of 50,000 or more showed growth in the Northeast and Midwest, reversing declines in 2022.


• FOOD STAMPS: House unveils $1.5 trillion farm bill. House Republicans have unveiled the long-awaited farm bill, and it is food stamp provisions in the massive $1.5 trillion legislative package that could draw staunch opposition from some Democrats, reports Politico. A provision would limit future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan, which serves as the basis for calculating benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That could prevent a future Democratic administration from increasing SNAP benefits by as little as 23 cents per day in the years 2027 or 2032. It also could stop a future GOP president from dramatically rolling back President Joe Biden’s major expansion of SNAP. Food benefits would still increase based on inflation, and nutrition programs would still make up more than 80% of the total farm bill spending under the policy. The House farm bill would actually expand immediate access to SNAP and other anti-hunger efforts like strained food banks and nutrition improvements for seniors. In a major move, the legislation gets rid of the current lifetime ban on low-income Americans with a previous felony drug conviction from receiving SNAP benefits.


• CLIMATE CHANGE: Florida erases ‘climate change’ from state law. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Wednesday that will erase more than 50 instances of the words “climate change” from state statutes and restructure the state’s fossil fuel-based energy policy that listed climate change as a priority when making energy policy decisions. The priority now is to ensure “an adequate, reliable and cost-effective supply of energy for the state in a manner that promotes the health and welfare of the public and economic growth.” The legislation also prevents local governments from enacting some energy policy restrictions and prohibits the construction or expansion of offshore wind facilities and certain wind turbines within a mile of the coast (Florida has no such facilities currently).


• DATA PRIVACY: Vermont Legislature passes one of the strongest data privacy measures in the country. The measure, passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature, would crack down on companies’ use of online personal data and would let consumers file civil lawsuits against companies that break certain privacy rules. The bill prohibits the sale of sensitive data, such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers, financial or health information. It also sets meaningful limits on the amount of personal data that companies can collect and use. More than a dozen states have comprehensive data privacy laws. Vermont’s bill is “among the strongest, if not the strongest” in the country, according to the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Center. It is unclear whether Republican Gov. Phil Scott will sign it, though. He has cited concerns about how it could affect small businesses.


• GUNS: Maryland governor signs gun violence bills. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signed a bill into law on Thursday to create a new statewide center to help prevent gun violence. The office will help foster a statewide partnership with federal and local agencies and focus federal grants on efforts to reduce violence. It will be part of the state health department and implement a public health approach to the problem. Moore also signed a bill that would enable state and local officials to hold members of the firearm industry accountable in civil court if they fail to meet minimum standards to prevent harm. Another bill expands the definition of “rapid fire trigger activator” to include auto sears, also known as Glock switches, and bans them in the state.


• DEI: Schools in a Virginia county to reinstate confederate names. The Shenandoah County, Virginia, school board voted 5-1 late last week to restore the names of three Confederate officers to schools in the district. With the vote, the district appears to be the first in the country to return Confederate names to schools that had removed them after the summer of 2020, according to researchers at the Equal Justice Initiative. The vote rolled back a decision made four years ago, when the killing of George Floyd prompted nationwide demands for a racial reckoning. The county, which is more than 90% white, is not alone in rolling back decisions made in 2020, reports The New York Times. Across the U.S., a host of measures adopted in 2020 and 2021, including new classroom curriculums about the nation’s racial history, have been curtailed or eliminated in the years since. Schools have reinstated mascots that had been condemned as racially offensive. But until Friday, it appears that none had brought back Confederate namesakes.


• CORRECTIONS: Do children have a “right to hug” their parents? Hundreds of counties around the country have ended in-person jail visits, replacing them with video calls and earning a cut of the profits, reports The New Yorker. Now, two national nonprofits have worked with families in Michigan to file a pair of innovative lawsuits, asserting that, under the state constitution’s due-process clause, people have a legal right to see their loved ones in local jails. Incarcerated people have tried to assert such a right in the past, but they have often been rebuffed in the courts. “What’s novel about our legal argument is that it’s brought by people who aren’t incarcerated—mostly by kids, but also by parents,” Cody Cutting, a lead attorney on the case, said. The families hope that, if they win, their lawsuits could serve as a model for the rest of the country.


• TRANSPORTATION: How Texas’ explosive growth led to a toll-building spree. Millions of Texans rely on toll roads daily in a state that has built more paid thoroughfares over the past two decades than almost all U.S. states combined. The high concentration of toll roads came about because state leaders disdained higher taxes but needed a way to prepare for an influx of new residents. But now those same roads are adversely affecting drivers all over Texas, a yearlong Dallas Morning News investigation on tolls found. Tolls have engulfed some communities, making it difficult for residents—especially those who live in middle- to low-income neighborhoods—to avoid them or travel easily without them. They have also brought complaints from motorists and some local judges about excessive fees and unfair treatment by some of the state’s largest toll operators. Each year, thousands of drivers are hauled into court for unpaid fees. Some have their car registrations yanked and others are sent to jail even when they have proof the fees they were charged are incorrect. These practices make Texas one of the country’s harshest and most unforgiving states for unpaid toll fines, the investigation revealed.


• INFRASTRUCTURE: Vermont school closures highlight dire infrastructure needs. Recent school building closures following heavy rains in Vermont highlight ailling education infrastructure there. Beset with the second oldest building stock in the country according to the Vermont Agency of Education, the state’s schools need roughly $6 billion in facility improvements in the next two decades, a number widely considered an underestimate. Vermont hasn’t provided state funding for school construction since the Great Recession. Lawmakers hope to renew aid soon, and they passed a bill this year tasking a small group with outlining a reimagined program. But money is years away, and state leaders must still answer critical questions, such as where will funds come from, and who should get first dibs? Forced to raise money locally, school districts have struggled to pass construction bonds, kicking the can on large-scale renovations. 


• HOUSING: Priced out of housing, communities take development into their own hands. Across the country, neighborhood groups are uniting to fund mixed-use developments that meet housing and business demands, giving locals a place to live, work and learn new skills, reports The New York Times. Called “community-owned cooperative real estate,” the strategy enables neighborhood groups to finance unconventional construction or renovation projects that banks and institutional lenders, which prefer strong cash-flow operations, won’t touch. Much of the approach stems from efforts by the federal and state governments to make it easier for small investors to put money into real estate developments. Federal rules once barred small investors—those whose net worth is less than $1 million or who make less than $200,000 a year in income—from participating in development projects; that changed in 2015. At the same time, a few states enacted laws allowing small investors to put their money into local developments.


• PUBLIC HEALTH: Drowning deaths are on the rise. A new Florida law could help. Greater access to swimming lessons is key in curbing the rise in unintentional drowning deaths as more than 4,500 people have drowned each year from 2020-2022, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last month will give low-income families vouchers for swimming lessons for children under five. The study published Tuesday, states that the highest drowning rates occur among children between one and four years old, adults over 65, and Indigenous, Alaska Native and Black people. The Swimming Lesson Voucher Program goes into effect July 1 and targets families with an income lower than 200% of the federal poverty level, or $31,200 for a family of four.


• ELECTIONS: Alabama bans ranked-choice voting. Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law late last week a bill banning ranked-choice voting in local, state and federal elections. A method of voting used for statewide elections in some states, including Alaska and Maine, ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, and sometimes includes multiple rounds. Republican sponsors of the bill argued that the voting method was complicated and confusing for voters. It received some pushback from Democratic lawmakers who argued, given the low voter participation rate in the state, that banning ranked-choice voting was unnecessary and premature.  Some studies have shown that general elections that permit ranked-choice voting saw a 10% increase in voter turnout. Alabama’s voter turnout has been far below national averages in recent years, with the 2022 midterm elections seeing a 23.4% voter turnout rate.


• ELECTION HIJINKS: One Bob is left standing in governor’s race. Only one Democrat named Bob Ferguson is running to be Washington’s next governor after two others with the same name withdrew Monday. The Bob still standing is the attorney general. The other Bob Fergusons, one from Yakima and the other from Graham, exited before a 5 p.m. deadline amid threat of potential criminal prosecution for intentionally trying to confuse and mislead voters with their candidacies. Both had been recruited into the race by conservative Republican activist Glen Morgan, who raised the money to pay their filing fees. Monday’s departures ended weirdness in the high-stakes contest for governor. After months of the race centering on four candidates, focus shifted briefly to the three Bob Fergusons.

Picture of the Week

A new state flag rose over the Minnesota Capitol at dawn last Saturday, May 11, marking its official adoption after a decades-long push to change the state’s emblems, reported the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The new design, inspired by one of more than a thousand public submissions considered by a state panel last year, is considerably simpler than the now-retired state flag, which featured the state’s old seal on a blue background, or what vexillologists call an S.O.B. flag, and long attracted criticism for its resemblance to other state flags. Some also criticized the old flag, which flew for more than 130 years, for what they say is the glorification of the displacement of Native Americans by European settlers. The new flag has an eight-pointed white star in a dark blue abstract shape of Minnesota on the left and a field of light blue on the right, evoking imagery of the state’s waters, as well as the state motto: L’Étoile du Nord, French for “Star of the North.” A state panel chose the flag last year, but the adoption date of May 11 coincides with Statehood Day—this year marking 166 years since Minnesota became the 32nd U.S. state.

Government in Numbers

5 million

The number of solar installations in the U.S., the Solar Energy Industries Association announced on Thursday. The news comes just eight years after the nation reached 1 million installations. More than a quarter of those installations have come online since the Inflation Reduction Act became law, according to data released by SEIA and Wood Mackenzie, a research and consulting firm. While 97% of solar installations are at residences, the project count also includes solar systems installed at businesses and solar farms. Solar installations in the U.S. are expected to double to 10 million by 2030 and triple to 15 million by 2034, according to the group. The U.S. has enough solar installations to cover every residential rooftop in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, according to SEIA.