After riding high during the Biden years, passenger rail advocates are now unsure of what is coming down the track, with President Donald Trump back in the Oval Office and total Republican control in Washington.

Rail projects are currently underway across the country, fueled by billions of dollars in spending included in the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by then-President Joe Biden. 

“What the Biden administration accomplished was we finally — as a nation — invested in infrastructure that we've been putting off for half a century,” Jim Mathews, the president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, said.

“There’s a lot that has been started,” he added. “And the risk, of course, is that we don't finish.”

What You Need To Know

  • In recent years, rail projects have been underway across the country, fueled by billions of dollars in spending included in the bipartisan infrastructure law signed by then-President Joe Biden
  • Now, with the return of President Donald Trump and total Republican control in Washington, there are questions about the future of passenger rail in America

  • The CEO of the Rail Passengers Association expressed some confidence that major cuts to Amtrak ultimately will not make it to the president’s desk, citing a past example where New York Republicans pushed back last year on a plan by their GOP colleagues to slash the Northeast Corridor funding

In the northeast United States, the most high profile project is Gateway and the long-awaited new train tunnels under the Hudson River. 

During his first term, President Trump was accused of slow-walking the tunnel project. 

When the funding for the tunnel project was finally secured under the Biden administration last year, the then-head of the Gateway Development Commission told Spectrum News that the project is beyond “the point of no return,” downplaying the risk of Trump trying to claw that money back.

Mathews shares that view, arguing the courts would likely block a Trump effort to interfere.

“We still have the rule of law in this country,” he said. “That money is out the door. It's obligated. Contracts have been signed.”

Separately, on Capitol Hill, some Republicans have signaled that Amtrak’s funding could be cut. 

Rep. Daniel Webster, who chairs a House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee, argued lawmakers should look to “wean” the railroad off government support. “Amtrak should serve as an appealing option for travel, not a replacement for vehicles and airplanes, which remains the overwhelming preference for Americans,” he added.

Weaning the railway off government funding, the Rail Passengers Association CEO said, would upend Amtrak “as we know it.”

That said, Mathews expressed some confidence that major cuts ultimately will not make it to the president’s desk — even as Republicans control all of the levers of power in Washington. 

He cited what happened last year, where several New York Republicans in Congress helped to block an effort by their GOP colleagues to slash the Northeast Corridor funding by roughly $1 billion. 

So what might the future hold? 

“Certainly we may see a pullback on some investment, and there is always a risk of unintended consequences, where taking money in one spot winds up forcing Amtrak to take money out of another spot to cover the gap, and then you lose routes, and you have to lay off workers,” he said. “And that would be a disaster.”

Spectrum News reached out to the Trump White House, asking what the president sees as the future for Amtrak and whether he wants his billionaire adviser Elon Musk and his DOGE team to go through the rail agency. 

They did not respond by deadline.