USDOT Announces $5B for Rail Grants, Including $2.4B Previously Awarded to Calif. High-Speed Rail

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration issued a notice of funding opportunity for the Nationwide Railroad Partnership Program Sept. 22. The discover makes greater than $5 billion accessible for grant awards, although it consists of $2.4 billion DOT says was de-obligated from the California Excessive-Velocity Rail Authority grants that CHSRA is at present suing to recover. 

The grants can be found to states, tribes, Amtrak, native governments and others for intercity passenger rail infrastructure initiatives. In an announcement, Drew Feeley, the appearing FRA administrator, emphasised the grant’s availability to enhance railroad grade crossing security.

FRA initially issued the funding discover final yr because the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program, and rescinded it this month. Purposes beneath the reissued NOFO are due by Jan. 7, 2026.

The up to date NOFO removes references to 6 govt orders, principally from the Biden period but in addition one establishing equal employment alternative hiring practices that President Lyndon Johnson signed in 1965. It additionally incorporates an govt order from President Donald Trump focusing on variety initiatives. 

“Our new Nationwide Railroad Partnership Program will emphasize security—our primary precedence—with out the novel Biden-Buttigieg DEI and inexperienced grant necessities,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated in an announcement. 

The $2.4 billion comes from about $4 billion in grants DOT rescinded from CHSRA in July. It accounts for the most important piece of the funding alternative. Duffy as soon as once more referred to as the deliberate 800-mile high-speed rail system a “boondoggle” when saying the NOFO.

One of many terminated CHSRA grants was awarded under the same Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program. 

CHSRA is suing DOT to have the grant terminations tossed out. It additionally requested a decide to concern a preliminary injunction blocking DOT from awarding the cash to a different grantee or in any other case spending the cash elsewhere. 

The authority “has been ready for this risk and can take imminent authorized motion to dam this misguided effort by the FRA,” a CHSRA spokesperson stated by way of e-mail following the NOFO announcement. 

“The FRA’s determination to terminate federal funding for California high-speed rail was illegal, unwarranted and is being challenged in federal court docket,” the spokesperson stated. “Now, their try to redirect a portion of that funding, at present the topic of litigation, is untimely.”

Attorneys for DOT and FRA filed a movement to dismiss the case on Sept. 22. A decide has not but dominated on the submitting. 

In the meantime, building continues on the high-speed rail system’s preliminary 171-mile-long section from Merced to Bakersfield. Crews have accomplished work on practically 70 miles of guideway and about 60 buildings, and 29 buildings are at present beneath building in Madera, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties. CHSRA has additionally acquired environmental clearance for 463 miles of the 494-mile line between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim.