Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Federal Stimulus

$8B for High-Speed Rail, $1.5B in Transport Stimulus Coming This Winter

It's shaping up to be anything but a quiet winter for the U.S. DOT, with $9.5 billion in grants for clean transportation set for release to the winners of two highly competitive contests for federal aid.

obama_green_high_speed_rail.jpg(Image: Treehugger)

Federal Railroad Administrator Joe Szabo announced today that his agency would release all $8 billion of the high-speed rail money included in the economic stimulus law by this winter. The total cost of all 259 submitted applications, per Szabo, was about $57 billion for both full-scale corridor development and smaller planning projects.

Szabo's update comes less than a week after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told Congress that he would name the winners of the stimulus law's $1.5 billion TIGER grant program before the end of the year.

Within the Obama administration, ten teams are evaluating the applications submitted for TIGER, which the U.S. DOT says also total $57 billion. "We think we have a very good evaluation process going on and we have a lot of people in the department working on this," LaHood told the House infrastructure committee on Thursday.

TIGER's built-in competition between modes of transportation, from rail to ports to roads, marks something of a new frontier for the DOT, which generally cordons off each mechanism for moving people and goods into separate silos.

The Senate climate change bill that was released last week includes a proposal for similar inter-modal grants to help states and cities promote clean transportation-based emissions reductions, so the success of the TIGER program could help move the federal government away from its silo-heavy system and towards a more open approach.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: The Best Super Bowl Ad You’ll Never See

Every February, Automakers spend millions to get Americans into expensive cars they can't afford. What if we could do the same to get them onto a bike seat?

February 21, 2025

Friday’s Headlines Fear for Amtrak

Amtrak may not survive the second Trump administration, let alone the slow progress on expansion made under President Biden.

February 21, 2025

Protestors Disrupt USDOT Secretary’s Attack on California High-Speed Rail

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced a federal investigation into California High-Speed Rail "waste, fraud, and abuse." Protestors had a different take.

February 20, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: How Big Box Stores are Destroying the Fabric of America

All of this very much like relates to where we are in terms of the breakdown in our basic civic fabric as a country.

February 20, 2025

Is the Intercity Bus About To Have Its Big Moment?

Intercity bus had an unexpectedly strong year — and some analysts think even greater things are on the horizon.

February 20, 2025
See all posts