Federal-State Partnership Grants for the National Network 12/8/2023

[lordsigma]

It sounds like the Fed-State National Network grants are going to be announced on Friday with Brightline West being the big winner for the FY22/FY23 national network grants. Supposedly Biden is going to be down that way to do an announcement similar to what he did at the Bear shops for the NEC program. We'll have to see what else made the cut.

 

[Anderson]

i thought this grant came from a bigger pool of money. It's still not surprising, considering the amount of lobbying and supporters they had.

I believe this would be from the $36bn "Federal-State Partnership" pool, but I could be wrong (there could be funding from other pots, too). I forget if this mostly exhausts the non-NEC money or not (some of the funding pools sort-of blur together in my mind).

Link to the funding pot(s):
https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTA_IIJA_Passenger_Rail_Funding_01-01-2022.pdfEdit: To be clear, there are some seeming overlapping funding pots, which is probably why "How much money is made available in this Act?" is a bit of a mess to answer (and that's even before we get to "How much of that $5bn/yr for the National Network is Amtrak bothering to use?).

 

[lordsigma]

The following are the projects. The CHSRA, Brightline West, and S line projects are phased awards throughout the term of the bill - the other projects are fully funded this year. After these there remains $3 billion of the guaranteed IIJA dollars for the FY24 FY25 and FY26 opportunities (which could be supplemented by any additional authorized funds given during annual appropriations to the program):

Alaska Railroad - ARRC Milepost 190.5 Bridge Replacement Project (Up to $8,200,558)
CHSRA – California High-Speed Rail Service Project (Up to $3,073,600,000) (Phased Award)
Amtrak - Chicago Hub Projects:
Chicago Union Station Mail Platform Reactivation Project* (Up to $49,600,000)
Chicago Union Station Platform Capacity Expansion & Trainshed Ventilation Improvements Project* (Up to $44,000,000)
NNEPRA - Downeaster Corridor Track Improvement Project (Up to $27,492,000)
Amtrak – Malta, MT, Corridor Operational Enhancement Project (For Empire Builder) (Up to $14,900,000)
Brightline – Brightline West High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail System Project (Up to $3,000,000,000) (Phased Award)
NCDOT - Raleigh to Richmond (R2R) Innovating Rail Program – Phases IA and II (Up to $1,095,576,000) (Phased Award)
PennDOT - Pennsylvanian Rail Modernization Project (Up to $143,629,028)
VPRA - Transforming Rail in Virginia Phase 2 Project (Up to $729,000,000)

https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra...e (National) Project Fact Sheets_final_r2.pdf

 

[GDRRiley]

California and Virginia/North Carolina really took home the fed money this year.
Happy to see money advancing high speed and higher speed rail

 

[lordsigma]

Yes Virginia also got the Franconia Springfield bypass which was part of phase 1 funded under CRISI. So they did quite well. I do hope the remaining $3 billion gets awarded to other places now that these big ticket items have been awarded as there were a large number of other applications received - only 10 out of 64 were awarded. Additionally the conventional rail projects can also apply for the CRISI program.

 

[lordsigma]

Just to provide a complete picture of what got done this year outside of the NEC here were the passenger awards for FY22 for the CRISI program followed by the FedState awards. Next year's CRISI will be large as it will be a double fiscal year award FY23 and FY24. This year did just one year for CRISI but doubled up on FedState:

CRISI FY22 National network projects:
CHSRA - Six Grade Separations in the City of Shafter Project (Up to $201,946,942)
Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority - Sacramento to Roseville Third Track – Phase 1 Project (Up to $42,510,000)
Amtrak - Mississippi-Louisiana Grade Crossing Improvement Project (Up to $1,826,000)
MassDOT - Connecting the Commonwealth: Early Actions for the Inland Route Project (Up to $108,085,280)
Amtrak - Gulf Coast Corridor Improvement Project (Up to $178,435,333)
VPRA - Franconia-Springfield Bypass Project (Up to $100,000,000)

Fed State National network FY22/23 projects:
Alaska Railroad - ARRC Milepost 190.5 Bridge Replacement Project (Up to $8,200,558)
CHSRA – California High-Speed Rail Service Project (Up to $3,073,600,000) (Phased Award FY22-26)
Amtrak - Chicago Hub Projects:
Chicago Union Station Mail Platform Reactivation Project* (Up to $49,600,000)
Chicago Union Station Platform Capacity Expansion & Trainshed Ventilation Improvements Project* (Up to $44,000,000)
NNEPRA - Downeaster Corridor Track Improvement Project (Up to $27,492,000)
Amtrak – Malta, MT, Corridor Operational Enhancement Project (For Empire Builder) (Up to $14,900,000)
Brightline – Brightline West High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail System Project (Up to $3,000,000,000) (Phased Award FY22-26)
NCDOT - Raleigh to Richmond (R2R) Innovating Rail Program – Phases IA and II (Up to $1,095,576,000) (Phased Award FY22-26)
PennDOT - Pennsylvan ian Rail Modernization Project (Up to $143,629,028)
VPRA - Transforming Rail in Virginia Phase 2 Project (Up to $729,000,000)

 

[lordsigma]

I believe this would be from the $36bn "Federal-State Partnership" pool, but I could be wrong (there could be funding from other pots, too). I forget if this mostly exhausts the non-NEC money or not (some of the funding pools sort-of blur together in my mind).

Link to the funding pot(s):
https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTA_IIJA_Passenger_Rail_Funding_01-01-2022.pdfEdit: To be clear, there are some seeming overlapping funding pots, which is probably why "How much money is made available in this Act?" is a bit of a mess to answer (and that's even before we get to "How much of that $5bn/yr for the National Network is Amtrak bothering to use?).

Everything being announced tomorrow is from the Federal State Partnership National Network pool: Brightline West's as well as the CHSR and NCDOT awards are phased in over the 5 years. There will be $3 billion left not yet awarded for FY 24-26 plus whatever Congress throws at the program in annual appropriations - however FRA could throw some of any additional funds received at the NEC pool as well. Keep in mind that Conventional passenger rail projects can also be apply to CRISI (and many of these projects that qualified for both programs likely applied to both programs and will do so again next year.)

 

[Anderson]

Everything being announced tomorrow is from the Federal State Partnership National Network pool: Brightline West's as well as the CHSR and NCDOT awards are phased in over the 5 years. There will be $3 billion left not yet awarded for FY 24-26 plus whatever Congress throws at the program in annual appropriations - however FRA could throw some of any additional funds received at the NEC pool as well. Keep in mind that Conventional passenger rail projects can also be apply to CRISI (and many of these projects that qualified for both programs likely applied to both programs and will do so again next year.)

Yes, but there were two Federal State Partnership National Network pools (the funding tables are headache-inducing [1]). One is $36bn, the other is $7.5bn.

(As you noted, there's also $5bn+$5bn in CRISI grants, and $2.5+$3.0bn in railroad crossing grants as well. And, of course, two pots for the Amtrak National Network and Amtrak NEC as well...)


[1] https://www.apta.com/wp-content/uploads/APTA_IIJA_Passenger_Rail_Funding_01-01-2022.pdf

 

[lordsigma]

Actually the two tables in your document are the two parts of the bill. FedState is one account. The bill has two parts - part 1 is the reauthorization of the FAST act - the $7.5 billion for fed state listed there is the amount authorized for that program that can be spent through annual appropriations - the actual amount each year is contingent on politics and the annual budget appropriations process. So far much less than the authorized amounts for all the accounts has been appropriated each year. The lower section is part 2 of the IIJA which were guaranteed advanced appropriations for each account - this is the $66 billion everyone talks about. This funding is already appropriated - for fed state it’s the $36 billion. So basically each year each account will have the amount for the lower at the least - plus any authorized funds congress appropriates which would supplement the lower table. The Amtrak amounts in the lower table are restricted to major infrastructure projects - they cannot be used for routine capital or operating purposes - those must be funded by annual appropriations (the upper table). FedState’s advanced appropriations also have rules with a national vs NEC pool with a minimum for National and a maximum for NEC - FRA so far is treating that max and min as literal and putting the max into the NEC. Any additional funding appropriated from the authorized amounts in the top heading would get added to the bottom heading. For Federal State if not specified by congress in the annual appropriation as far as minimum and maximum I believe FRA has discretion on whether to put additional funding received towards either NEC or national projects. So there is $3 billion left of the national portion of the $36 billion which could be supplemented by yearly appropriations (but some of which could be given to the NEC also.)

 

[Palmland]

I'm glad to see the money finally being delivered for these projects. For those of us tired of seeing endless planning projects I thought Trains.com had an interesting take on these announcements:

"There were a total of 67 grant applications; those selected included two high projects, five conventional rail corridor improvements, and three involving existing services state-of-good repair projects or improvements. The emphasis was clearly on construction that would begin in relatively short order; every project selected indicates construction will begin in 2024 or 2025, other than the Union Station work, which lists it as “to be determined.” No application was selected that strictly involved planning."