{"id":47,"date":"2026-05-27T04:15:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=47"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:15:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:15:35","slug":"why-build-america-250-would-be-uniquely-bad-for-passenger-rail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=47","title":{"rendered":"Why BUILD America 250 Would Be Uniquely Bad For Passenger Rail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

America\u2019s next major transportation bill could potentially strip railways of more than 80 percent of their federal funding \u2014 even as its first draft appears to promise Amtrak and other rail operators more <\/em>money on paper, a top advocacy organization warned.<\/p>\n

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Last week, the National Rail Passengers Association declined to endorse the BUILD America 250 Act. The organization said the legislation failed to provide \u201creliable funding and a clear commitment to growth\u201d for train operators across America, despite more than doubling operations funding for Amtrak in the first fiscal year alone.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the money wouldn\u2019t be guaranteed. And over the course of the bill\u2019s five years, that funding is widely expected to plummet.<\/p>\n

Unlike the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the new bill would theoretically replace when it expires on Sept. 30, BUILD America 250 includes no \u201cadvanced appropriations\u201d for any transportation program not secured by the Highway Trust fund \u2014\u00a0a $106 billion category which includes all funding for passenger rail. That means that every single dollar it \u201cpromises\u201d to train operators would need to be approved by Congress again <\/em>as part of the annual budget process before it actually goes out the door.<\/p>\n

By contrast, BUILD America 250 promises more funding for highway programs without <\/em>subjecting that money to the appropriations process \u2014 even though gas taxes have failed to actually cover the costs of America\u2019s asphalt addiction for decades, and growing highways have failed to curb congestion, cut traffic deaths, or delivery any of the benefits that road builders so often promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message of this bill is loud and clear: highways and roads are a core federal priority and intercity rail is a state-level vanity project that Congress is willing to play along with \u2014but only up to a point,\u201d wrote Sean Jeans-Gail, the association\u2019s vice president of government affairs and policy.<\/p>\n

Jean-Gails and his colleagues aren\u2019t entirely<\/em> negative about the BUILD America 250 Act. They pointed out that the legislation could at least theoretically provide about $64 billion for rail programs \u2014\u00a0which is 38 percent less than the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but significantly more than what rail operators enjoyed prior to \u201cAmtrak Joe\u201d Biden\u2019s signature transportation bill set a new bar for federal rail funding.<\/p>\n

By making most of that money subject to appropriations, though, advocates fear Congress is once again turning America\u2019s train network into a massive bargaining chip that lawmakers could easily wager away to end a funding fight \u2014\u00a0and setting up advocates to take the fall for a government shutdown if rail fans in Congress stick to their guns.<\/p>\n

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, appropriators struggled to scrounge up more than $3 billion additional dollars for transportation programs in any given year during the annual budgeting process. BUILD America 250 would require them to find $13 billion in the couch cushions every year just for rail<\/em> \u2014 not including the other transportation priorities that would be subject to appropriations, too.<\/p>\n

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And if transit boosters in Congress don\u2019t win that stalemate, their failure could slow or halt America\u2019s railway renaissance just as Amtrak scores all-time records for ridership and <\/em>revenue \u2014 and possibly even threaten route expansions that, by their very nature, take years to implement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the leadup to this bill, Chairman Graves repeatedly made statements about getting \u2018back to basics\u2019, where he explicitly referenced highways and bridges,\u201d wrote the association. \u201cThe repeated emphasis on non-federal share for passenger rail is a strong indicator that this philosophy won out in this bipartisan process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The absence of guaranteed money would also complicate some of the other rail policies in BUILD America 250, including its mandate to create a new \u201cnational intercity passenger railroad partnership program\u201d and \u201cequipment leasing pools\u201d that would make it easier for operators to acquire trainsets without waiting years for manufacturers to fulfill their orders.<\/p>\n

The association supports both those ideas, but doubts Congress will actually get them done if they can easily pull the rug out from under operators the next time they write a national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven an annual appropriations process that is more likely to generate an extended government shutdown than pass a bill on time, we can say with a high degree of confidence: there won\u2019t be enough funding,\u201d Jean-Gails wrote. \u201cAn improved policy framework with insufficient funding is like getting a fancy new car and popping the hood to find an \u2018IOU\u2019 note where the engine should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

With people across the U.S. relying on threadbare train networks to meet their basic intercity travel needs \u2014 not to mention yearning for the world-class rail system America truly deserves \u2014 association president and CEO Jim Matthews said an IOU just won\u2019t do.<\/p>\n

\u201cPassengers, states, workers and communities are let down and left behind by the BUILD America 250 Act \u2026 We need your help to push back on this blatant disregard for the needs of millions of Americans across the country,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

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Congress’ first draft of the new infrastructure law would be a massive step backwards for passenger rail, one advocacy group says \u2014 and not just because the last one raised the bar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy BUILD America 250 Would Be Uniquely Bad For Passenger Rail - Urban Atlas Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanatlasmedia.com\/?p=47\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why BUILD America 250 Would Be Uniquely Bad For Passenger Rail - 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