Trump budget slashes federal aid for rail, long-distance Amtrak routes

By Katherine Shaver and Lori Aratani May 23 at 7:29 PM

President Trump’s transportation budget slashes federal aid to the nation’s rail systems by cutting funding for long-distance Amtrak service and severely limiting money to help expand transit lines and build new ones.

{Trump budget proposes dramatic changes to federal government}

The $16.2 billion budget represents a nearly 13 percent reduction in transportation spending over fiscal 2017. That includes $928 million cut from transit construction grants, nearly half of what Congress recently appropriated for this fiscal year, and a $630 million reduction in subsidies for long-distance Amtrak routes.
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The administration repeated an earlier pledge that it would not devote federal money to any transit construction projects that don’t have already have full funding grant agreements. Transit construction projects, the administration said, should be funded by the localities that benefit from them.
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About 50 public transit projects in 23 states are at risk of losing federal support, according to the American Public Transportation Association. While some are in the early planning stages, others have been on the cusp of signing funding agreements. Those include the light-rail Purple Line in Maryland, a streetcar project in Orange County, Calif., a light-rail extension in the Minneapolis suburbs, and a light-rail extension north of Seattle.
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Michael Laris contributed to this report.

Katherine Shaver is a transportation and development reporter. She joined The Washington Post in 1997 and has covered crime, courts, education and local government but most prefers writing about how people get — or don’t get — around the Washington region.
Follow @shaverk

Lori Aratani writes about how people live, work and play in the D.C. region for The Post’s Transportation and Development team.
Follow @loriara