Amtrak will add 2nd daily NYC-Pittsburgh roundtrip

WASHINGTON — Track improvements to allow a second daily roundtrip between Pittsburgh and New York City and a study looking at passenger trains heading west from the City of Bridges to Chicago are among the latest projects to receive funding under President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law.

Mr. Biden traveled to Nevada on Friday to announce $8.2 billion in funding for 10 major rail projects. The funds are part of the $66 billion earmarked for railroads in the infrastructure law, which Mitch Landrieu, senior adviser to the president and White House infrastructure coordinator, called “the largest investment in passenger rail since the creation of Amtrak more than 50 years ago.”

The president, who used to commute daily via Amtrak to the U.S. Capitol from his home in Delaware, has championed the expansion of passenger rail since taking office.

On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg named Pittsburgh as one of the cities that got its start as a railroad town.

The list of projects announced Friday include $143.6 million for improvements to Norfolk Southern’s main line between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, including tracks, signals, and acquiring rights of way. The total cost of the project is estimated at $180 million and the state will pay part of the cost.

Construction is expected to take place from 2024-30.

The improvements are designed to enable Amtrak to run a second daily passenger train on a route known as the Pennsylvanian, which connects Pittsburgh and New York through Philadelphia. The existing daily train saw a ridership increase of 9.4%during the 12 months ending Sept. 30. State transportation officials said in June 2022 that they wanted to add a second daily passenger train.

Amit Bose, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, called Friday’s announcement “another step forward as we advance transformative projects that will carry Americans for decades to come and provide them with convenient, climatefriendly alternatives to congested roads and airports.”

Federal transportation officials also set aside $500,000 to study the feasibility of extending passenger trains west of Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Indiana; and Chicago along existing tracks. It is one of 69 corridors receiving a total of $34.5 million to fund evaluations of whether passenger rail service would be viable along those routes.

Mr. Bose called it “a oncein-a-generation opportunity to think smart and think big about the future of rail in America.”

Mr. Buttigieg said that any such service would be years away, but the studies now would provide a road map for expanding passenger rail in the future should additional funding become available.

“There will be more and more of an appetite in America to make the investments,” he said.