FRA to Rewrite Rail Grant Guidance

The Federal Railroad Administration plans to issue revamped guidance to freight railroads in the next month or so to address rail executives' concerns over requirements they could face when accepting federal grant money, the agency's top officer said.

Earlier guidance the FRA issued in May, for use of money from the government's "high speed rail" grants for inter-city passenger service, led freight rail executives to push back against the possibility they could be forced to repay large federal investments into their track networks if passenger trains fail to meet on-time standards.

Now, the FRA "is revising the guidance, taking into consideration the concerns expressed by railroads and others, and intends to issue that guidance in the next month or so," said FRA Administrator Joseph Szabo in comments supplied by his staff.

After the railroad chiefs complained, Szabo and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with top rail CEOs along with Edward Hamberger, president and CEO of the Association of American Railroads.

The FRA said Szabo "accepted personal responsibility for our failure to seek stakeholder input" before releasing the prior regulatory guidance on grant funding, "and recognizes the legitimate concerns and fears it prompted among some in the rail community."

The dustup may be slowing development of some expensive inter-city passenger rail projects. Of last year's $8 billion in high-speed rail grants that were in the economic stimulus law, the administration aimed $4.5 billion at projects that would boost Amtrak-type regular passenger service on tracks owned by freight railroads.

Much of that money would go to add tracks or sidings, upgrade track quality and improve signaling, things that could benefit freight as well as passenger train operations. The agency says federal law requires measurable service standards to be built into grant funding agreements. But rail executives don't like guaranteeing schedules for passenger service on their tracks.

Szabo now says the agreements must include quantifiable service outcomes based on "mutually agreed upon analysis/modeling" that includes trip times, train frequencies and schedule reliability "to the extent it is under a party's control."

And he said the agreements will include the principle that "America's world-class freight rail system must be preserved and improved."

Contact John Boyd at jboyd@joc.com.