Transit Funding Summary Review
As regards the Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Bill
With respect to Amtrak
While there's a total of $66 billion broken into three buckets, I recall reading in July that this is not fully funded and will require additional Congressional funding in the future.
Slate had one of the best breakdowns (at the time).
Bucket One
With a target date for completion in 2035, you can count on "Amtrak Joe's" $24 billion for the Northeast Corridor being (fully) funded. Per Slate:
Quote:
The biggest-ticket item is, as it should be, money for the route that not only delivers the best service and takes in the most revenue but also has the most potential: the Northeast Corridor. The string of cities between Washington and Boston is the densest part of the country. It’s home to one in five U.S. jobs, and its economy would be the fifth largest in the world on its own.
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Bucket Two
consists of $20 billion for "intercity service, safety grants, and grade crossing improvements." If you figure that many pieces of the existing system are being held together by "bailing wire" then it's easy to assume this bucket is also already funded.
Bucket Three
entitled simply "Grants" with $22 billion in designated funds is by deduction likely still unfunded.
Comment:
Much about the Amtrak portion of the Infrastructure Bill is ill-defined or frankly yet-to-be defined. Whether some expansion could occur out of Bucket Two, who knows?
With respect to Phoenix-Tucson expansion this feels like one of the better prospects - although this whole funding package does seem to have a NE density tilt.