Trump’s Feud With New York Masks Amtrak’s Spending Spree
Advancement of a project in Baltimore shows how the railway is navigating the president’s second term.
By Ted Mann
May 2, 2026
Bloomberg
"President Donald Trump’s long-running feud with New York over the $16 billion Gateway tunnel masks a turn of events that even executives at Amtrak didn’t see coming: The administration is largely staying out of the way as the railroad undertakes a building spree unmatched in its more than 50-year history.
While the showdown over Gateway drags on, government-owned Amtrak is flush with some $33 billion it received for capital projects under the Biden-era bipartisan infrastructure law — funding that survived DOGE — and is putting that cash to work.
The latest evidence of that is in Baltimore. After months of negotiations, Amtrak and its construction partners have agreed to cut $1 billion out of what is expected to be a more than $6 billion rail tunnel beneath the city, a concession that clears the way for a project critical to rail travelers across the region. With that, Amtrak this week green-lit its tunneling contractor to begin mobilizing the boring machines that will replace the 153-year-old Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel, a dilapidated structure the company calls the worst bottleneck on the Northeast Corridor, a potential “single point of failure” for 15 million riders.."
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/...QXP8-1MhCd4SNs&leadSource=uverify%20wall
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