PA: Trump budget targets federal transit, passenger rail funding

Federal, state and local officials are mustering their lobbying troops after President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 budget called for substantial cuts in funding for public transit and passenger railroads.

The proposed budget, released April 3, calls for cutting discretionary spending for public transit by 22.7%, to $16.3 billion, and passenger rail funding by 82%, to $2.8 billion. The rail cuts won’t derail plans for a second Amtrak trip between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, but it would jeopardize plans for rail service from Scranton to New York City and from Reading to Philadelphia.

“We have our work ahead of us,” said Ward W. McCarragher, vice president of government affairs for the American Public Transit Association. “We’ve had increases the last five years” mostly through the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill.

The U.S. Department of Transportation didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Transit cuts

Transit money allocated by a special formula to each state and local agency would continue with a slight increase, but discretionary funds and competitive grants used for major items such as bus and rail car purchases as well as safety improvements would be substantially reduced.

Capital investment grants would fall by $1.6 billion; competitive grants for low- or no- emission buses would be reduced by $1 billion; grants for keeping facilities and equipment in good repair would drop by $950 million; and money to make stations compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act standards would be cut by $350 million.

The cuts come at a particularly difficult time for many transit agencies that face financial problems with ridership still lagging from the pandemic and emergency federal funding running out.

Early this year, Pittsburgh Regional Transit had been projecting service cuts of 35%, layoffs of 38% of management and union employees, ending service at 11 p.m., and shrinking the service area for paratransit users.

That changed when Gov. Josh Shapiro allowed the agency to use capital funds over the next two years for operating costs. It bought time for the governor and the legislature to develop a plan to increase the state transit subsidy for the first time in 12 years, but no new funding has yet been approved.

Additionally, the agency faces capital costs of more than $1 billion for projects such as replacing 81 light rail trains that are several years past their replacement schedule, building an additional bus garage to allow for service expansion and replacing the outdated long-term maintenance garage in Manchester.

Those are the types of projects paid for with the help of federal grants. Over the a five-year period ending in 2024, PRT received $327 million in federal funds, an average of $65.3 million a year.

“We have serious concerns about the proposed reduction to federal transit funding and will be in Washington, D.C., this month to voice our concerns,” PRT spokesman Adam Brandolph said in a statement.

Laura Wiens, executive director of Pittsburghers for Public Transit and part of the statewide Transit for All PA coalition, said advocates were “appalled” at the proposed cuts.

“Public transit is critical public infrastructure — like roads and bridges — and a lifeline for rural and urban communities across the Commonwealth,” she said. “Pittsburgh Regional Transit and [the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority] already have state of good repair deficits in the billions of dollars, which has led to predictable consequences with railcar fires, bridge collapses and accessibility project cancellations.

“Every Pennsylvanian deserves safe and accessible means to move around, and these cuts to transit capital funding would amplify the harm caused by the state's inaction on passing new funding last year to address our transit fiscal cliff.”

U.S. Rep Chris Deluzio, D- Fox Chapel, a member of the House Transportation Committee, called the proposed cuts “devastating.”

“These are not the kind of programs we should be cutting,” he said. “These are the programs we should be expanding. This is not over.”

Mr. McCarragher agreed.

“We have about $150 billion in state of good repair work to address across the country,” he said.

Rail cuts

On the rail side, the budget proposal eliminates $500 million that had been available for improving dangerous rail crossings and cuts $7.3 billion from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grants.

“The proposed cuts would derail the process for the rail expansion projects for Scranton to NYC and Reading to Philadelphia,” said Erin Waters-Trasatt, a spokeswoman for Mr. Shapiro. “Without the federal funding that the proposal cuts, these essential projects would not move forward.”

That holds true across the country, Mr. McCarragher said. The administration’s proposal to cut funding for intercity rail to $2.8 billion would jeopardize nearly 70 projects under development nationwide.

“New passenger rail projects would be severely hurt under this funding level,” he said.

Mr. Deluzio said he is particularly upset by the elimination of money to improve safety around crossings. He said nine of the 20 most dangerous crossings in the state are in the southwestern region, including the second most dangerous, which is in his district in Cheswick.

“We should not cutting that kind of rail funding,” he said. “That’s an important safety issue.”

Mr. Deluzio said he’s not concerned if Congress doesn’t change the president’s budget proposal to restore the proposed cuts by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year. He said he expects the mid-term elections in November will shift full control of the House and Senate to the Democratic Party and the cuts would be restored.

As part of the impending budget battle, Congress also has to renew authorization for the Surface Transportation Act, which allocates money from the Highway Trust Fund to pay the federal share for federal road and bridge projects, plus transit. If that is not approved by Sept. 30, almost all federal transportation money stops, although Congress has been known to approved continuing resolutions for several years to keep money flowing.

“There’s a lot of work ahead,” Mr. McCarragher said.

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