Amtrak to triple infrastructure investment over two years

Dive Brief:

• Amtrak plans to triple its annual infrastructure investment from $2 billion to $6 billion by fiscal year 2025, the railroad’s executive vice president of capital delivery, Laura Mason, told attendees at an infrastructure conference in New York on Sept. 15, Engineering News-Record reports.
• The passenger railroad also plans to commit to contracting $15 billion over the coming 15 months and $32 billion in the next three years.
• Mason said Amtrak needs the investments, which are funded by the 2021 infrastructure law, to meet its goal of doubling ridership by 2040.

Dive Insight:

The bipartisan infrastructure law gave Amtrak the largest investment in its history: $66 billion over five years for new tunnel and bridge projects, repairs and maintenance, along with new intercity passenger rail routes and more service along existing lines.

Earlier this year, Amtrak began work on a new $4.5 billion tunnel to replace the Civil War-era Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, and the Federal Railroad Administration committed nearly $7 billion to the long-delayed Hudson River Tunnel project — both key projects along the Northeast Corridor. Other major projects serving that Boston-Washington, D.C. corridor include bridges in New Jersey and Connecticut, and the East River Tunnel and Sunnyside Yard facility in New York City, according to ENR. Three additional maintenance facilities, in Boston, Seattle and Washington, D.C., are also set to get major upgrades.

Mason said she is doubling the size of her department to handle the additional workload in managing these projects. Amtrak hired over 3,700 people and invested $2.3 billion in capital projects in fiscal year 2022, including new trains, according to a company document. The railroad also recently launched its first electric bus service between Seattle and Bellingham, Washington, and said it may partner with a private firm to create a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston.