TIGER grants help keep passenger trains running in part of Kansas, evan as federal funding for rail transportation wanes
In the most recent round of TIGER funding, only one passenger-rail improvement project successfully secured a grant — $12.5 million to upgrade parts of Amtrak’s Southwest Chief route in Kansas and Colorado. Matching funds of $9.3 million will come from a mix of state, local and private sources.
During the first five rounds of TIGER, rail (both freight and passenger) received almost a quarter of all funding awarded (see chart). In the most recent round, announced in September, rail projects received a smaller overall share (11 percent).

In all, the U.S. Congress has appropriated $4.1 billion for six rounds of TIGER grants between FY 2009 and 2014. In the Midwest, funded projects related to passenger rail have included:
• FY 2010 — improvements to the Amtrak station in the Indiana town of Waterloo and creation of a new multimodal station in Moline, Ill;
• FY 2011 — preventing flooding along a section of track in North Dakota between Devils Lake and Churchs Ferry; and
• FY 2013 — completion of improvements to the Dearborn-Kalamazoo section of the Detroit-Chicago corridor and construction of a rail underpass that will benefit the Chicago-St. Louis corridor.
In addition, a project known as CREATE (Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program) has received $110.4 million in TIGER funding. One primary goal of CREATE is to reduce congestion on Amtrak routes serving the Midwest.
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