The United States administration has set out proposed reductions to public transport and passenger rail funding in its Fiscal Year 2027 budget request, published on 7 April 2026.

According to the proposal, total funding for public transit would be set at 16.3 billion USD, representing a 23 percent decrease compared with previous levels. Funding for passenger rail would fall more sharply to 2.8 billion dollars, an 82 percent reduction.

US Passenger Rail

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A key factor behind the proposed reductions is the absence of continued advance appropriations under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Without this mechanism, several established funding streams would see lower allocations or no continuation.

Programmes affected include:

• Capital Investment Grants, reduced by 1.6 billion USD
• Low or No Emission Competitive Grants, reduced by 1.05 billion USD
• State of Good Repair grants, reduced by 950 million USD
• All Station Accessibility Programme, reduced by 350 million USD
• Ferry Competitive Grants, reduced by 250 million USD

Passenger rail funding would be particularly affected under the proposal. The Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail programme would see a reduction of 7.2 billion USD, alongside a 500 million USD decrease to Railroad Crossing Elimination Grants.

These changes would affect funding streams used for intercity rail development, infrastructure upgrades and safety improvements.

The FY27 budget request represents the administration’s proposed spending plan and will be subject to review and negotiation by Congress before any final funding decisions are made.

View the FY27 Budget Highlights here.

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