The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday that it has awarded more than $1.4 billion for 70 projects in 35 states to improve railway safety and boost capacity, with much of the money coming from the 2021 infrastructure law.
In Kentucky, the Paducah and Louisville Railway will receive $29.5 million to make improvements to 280 miles of track. In Tennessee, $23.7 million will go to helping upgrade about 42 bridges on 10 different short-line railroads.
Also mong the projects is $178.4 million to restore passenger service in parts of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi along the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
The grant should make it possible to restore passenger service to the Gulf Coast after Amtrak reached an agreement with CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads last year to clear the way for passenger trains to resume operating on the tracks the freight railroads own.
In one of the biggest other grants, the Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad in Washington state will get $72.8 million to upgrade the track and related infrastructure to allow that rail line to handle modern 286,000-pound railcars.
Railroad safety has become a key concern nationwide ever since a train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in East Palestine, Ohio, in February, but a package of proposed rail safety reforms has stalled in the Senate where the bill is still awaiting a vote.
FILE - Portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed the night before burn in East Palestine, Ohio, on Feb. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
