US transit gets increase in federal funding: many rail and bus transit operators in the United States will benefit from a 5.2% increase in federal funding. In addition, some cities will also benefit from schemes that were approved by voters last year

International Railway Journal, March, 2005 by Luther Miller

WHEN President Nixon signed the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970, he set in motion a process that has since delivered tens of billions of dollars in federal matching funds to public transit systems. At about the same time, the federal government was creating Amtrak to preserve a modicum of intercity rail passenger service; the government investment in Amtrak to date is around $US 37 billion.

The first of these historic initiatives has helped produce an expanding new universe of light rail, heavy rail, and regional or commuter rail networks, as well as strengthened bus and paratransit services. The second has given the United States a network of intercity trains that has survived President Reagan's zero budgets, President Bush's draconian reform edicts, and Amtrak's own occasional spasms of bad management.

This year, federal funds will continue to flow, though not always where they are needed most. For fiscal 2005, the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which was signed by President Bush on December 15 2004, provides $US 7.64 billion for rail and road transit, an increase of 5.2% over fiscal 2004. Of this, $US 3 billion is for capital improvements including $US 1.2 billion for new starts and $US 1.2 billion for fixed-guideway modernisation. The bill also contains $US 19.3 million for next-generation highspeed rail.

Federal aid to Amtrak this year will be $US 1.22 billion. This is a little less than last year and a lot less than the $US 1.8 billion that Amtrak asked for both this year and last year. The Bush administration will renew its fight to require states to pick and pay for the trains they want to keep, hiring private operators to run them. But Congress is unlikely to go all the way on this because long-distance trains are so important to politicians in heartland states.

Railway equipment suppliers will continue to harvest a substantial part of their business from the passenger sector. Capital investment in commuter, heavy and light rail construction, modernisation maintenance, signalling and telecommunications, and roiling stock has recently been running at about $US 8 billion a year. According to our annual survey of the market for new and rebuilt cars (see tables), manufacturers will be working this year on an undelivered backlog of 2749 cars. Last year, 1257 new and rebuilt cars were delivered, worth about $US 1 billion.

Federal matching funds for new-start projects this year will total $US 1.2 billion, of which $US 714.6 million will be for light rail schemes, $US 275.4 million for commuter rail projects, and $US 246 million for metro schemes (see Table 1).

The New York area will continue to see rail transit activity, on a scale unmatched anywhere else in North America. However, two major projects could be in jeopardy if New York State does not provide the capital support deemed necessary by New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

One is the $US 6 billion East Side Access project. This will enable Long Island Rail Road services to reach Grand Central station; they currently only run to Penn station in Manhattan. Federal grants totalling $US 155.3 million have been committed so far. The second is the $US 16 billion Second Avenue Subway, which has been on the drawing board for 60 years. Major funding for both projects comes from MTA's $US 27.7 billion 2005-09 capital plan. But MTA projects a $US 16 billion gap in that plan, and now says that the money needs to be devoted solely to infrastructure upgrading projects and equipment acquisitions.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANY/NJ) adopted a capital budget that includes funds for the start of construction on a spectacular new transport hub at the former World Trade Center site. This will connect with an equally imposing subway hub being built by New York City Transit.

The PANY/NJ budget also provides initial funding for a feasibility study for a proposed rail link between lower Manhattan and New York's JFK International Airport. The cost of this project is estimated at $US 6 billion. The governor of New York, Mr George Pataki, has been trying to divert $US 2 billion in unused federal tax-credit commitments for rejuvenating post-September 11 Lower Manhattan to the airport rail link.

Plans for regional rail services in the 127 to 177km/h range will keep moving forward this year throughout the United States, though not at breakneck pace. A consultant's report released in December showed that the proposed 4800km Midwest Regional Rail network covering nine states would require $US 7.8 billion to upgrade track and purchase equipment. This compares with an original estimate of $US 4 billion.

Operating and capital deficits will continue to plague transit agencies in those cities where dedicated local funding sometimes goes off track. Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority recently told Chicago Transit Authority to cut its 2005 investment budget from $US 817 million to $US 691 million and ordered the commuter rail operator, Metra, to trim $US 117 million off its $US 355 million budget. This has forced Metra to put on hold the remainder of a five-year $US 585 million scheme to acquire a fleet of 160 Japanese Highliner cars, the first 26 of which are due to be delivered this year.