U.S. Airports, Railroads Prep for Influx of $1 Trillion in Infrastructure Funds
Photo Credit: Passenger rail operator Brightline could seek expansion funds from the new U.S. infrastructure bill. Brightline
Skift Take
President Biden's more than $1 trillion infrastructure plan provides an unseen-for-decades investment in U.S. transportation. But achieving its lofty goals could pose new challenges, which is something former President Obama knows well after partisan politics stymied some of his infrastructure ambitions.
"Infrastructure week," the Trump administration tagline that became a standing joke for the lack of action in national political circles, has finally arrived. The Biden administration secured its first big non-pandemic legislative win with the passage of the more than $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill.
"We did something that’s long overdue, that long has been talked about in Washington but never actually been done," President Joe Biden said on November 6, the day after the House of Representatives passed the measure, officially known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in a late night marathon session.
The bill is a big boost to the U.S. transportation system. Roads and bridges get $110 billion, transit systems nearly $90 billion over five years, the long underfunded passenger rail system gets $66 billion, and airports another $25 billion.
"The historic levels of travel infrastructure investment provided by this act — including for airports, railways, highways, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and more — will accelerate the future of travel mobility," said U.S. Travel Association CEO Roger Dow. He added that the creation of a Chief Travel and Tourism Officer at the U.S. Department of Transportation will allow for coordination of travel and tourism policy across transportation modes.
But now that the bill has passed — no small hurdle amid the political machinations in Washington, D.C. — comes the challenge of putting the funds to work. One only needs to rewind a decade to the Obama-era stimulus bi
