OneRail Calls for Sustained Commitment to Rail

Letter to Congressional Appropriators Lays Out Funding Needs

Washington DC, June 4, 2010 - The OneRail Coalition today urged Congress to fully fund the Federal Railroad Administration's grant programs in FY 2011, citing the environmental, energy efficiency, mobility and job creation benefits of rail. OneRail is a broad-based coalition of passenger and freight railroads, environmental advocates, passengers, rail labor, and suppliers.

In a letter to House and Senate appropriators, the OneRail Coalition requested that the following initiatives be fully funded:

• High-Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) - Increase funding for the HSIPR account to the House-endorsed 2010 level of $4 billion
• Amtrak - Provide the full amount of Amtrak's request of $2.6 billion
• Rail Safety Technology Grants - Provide $100 million to help fulfill the federal mandate to install Positive Train Control (PTC) technology, which is estimated to cost the industry more than $10 billion
• Rail Line Relocation and Improvement - Allocate $40 million to permit continued infrastructure investments in the nation's rail network

Members of the coalition also urged appropriators to support a multi-modal, analysis-based approach to transportation funding, based on programs such as the TIGER program established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and the eligibility for freight and passenger rail infrastructure for general funds allocated through that legislation.  Both of these foundational initiatives "demonstrated the value of rail as a component of the nation's transportation system" and should be continued.

In the five-page letter, members of the OneRail Coalition pointed out that sustained investment in rail over time would "avoid the boom/bust cycles that uneven funding creates" and would "go a long way toward re-establishing a domestic rail manufacturing base in the U.S."

The coalition said that in light of the constrained resources available to the federal government, Congress should base transportation spending decisions "on data that demonstrates how the nation can achieve other high-priority objectives such as less dependence on an oil-based economy, fewer carbon emissions, improved safety and congestion relief - all of which have high costs if confronted selectively.

"We believe that targeted investments in rail can help address, in part, all of these objectives," the letter concluded. "Adopting a comprehensive approach to investing in the full transportation system can help (appropriators) achieve multiple objectives within available budgetary resources."

About OneRail

The OneRail Coalition supports expanding the role of rail by providing for additional investment in the nation's rail infrastructure to create American jobs, de-congest chokepoints, put more freight and passengers on fuel-efficient trains, and reduce our nation's greenhouse gas emissions.

OneRail's members include: the American Public Transportation Association, American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, Amtrak, Association of American Railroads, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen, National Association of Railroad Passengers, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association, Railway Supply Institute, States for Passenger Rail Coalition, Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, Transportation Communications International Union/IAM, and United Transportation Union, as well as Alstom (an Associate Supporter). More information is available at www.onerail.org.

Media contacts:

Robin Buckley                                  Rick Remington
Buckley & Kaldenbach, Inc.             Buckley &Kaldenbach, Inc.
703.533.9805                                 609.456.1720
robin@buckleykaldenbach.com       rick.remingtonj@gmail.com