Washington, D.C. — At a moment when Washington is laying the groundwork for the next chapter in federal transportation policy, GoRail convened a timely conversation to decode what that means for freight rail and the communities it serves. “Signals from DC: The Federal Freight Rail Outlook,” brought together four top policy voices to provide community leaders, advocates, and stakeholders with a readout on where rail policy is headed. 

Drew Feeley, Deputy Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), opened the panel by focusing on the agency’s safety mission and deregulatory goals. “We are working diligently to try and pair back as many regs as we possibly can without compromising safety,” Feeley said, noting they’ve made 57 deregulatory efforts in a recent month alone. 

He outlined FRA’s top priorities — from improving grant transparency and modernizing regulatory frameworks, to accelerating funding timelines and building trust with stakeholders.  

“We’re trying to create some more certainty,” he said, emphasizing that stakeholders should be able to expect grant announcements to help them prepare. He was equally candid about the challenges for communities surrounding the pause on grant funding earlier this year, saying that the hold ensured the FRA wasn’t obligating projects inconsistent with the priorities of the Administration.  

“Going forward, as soon as we issue our Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs)…there’s not going to be any kind of withholding of money or non-obligating grants that have been awarded,” he said. And for any community leader unsure about where their application stands, Feeley encouraged reaching out directly: “We’re here to help.” 

On substance, Feeley shared that FRA is particularly interested in seeing more Consolidated Rail Infrustructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) program dollars directed to freight rail—especially short line projects that can be transformative for local economies. The agency also remains focused on grade crossing projects, which Feeley said is a priority for FRA Administrator David Fink, who was officially confirmed in his role by the Senate on October 7. Recently the FRA demonstrated this emphasis by renaming and updating the Federal-State Partnership (FSP) grant—now called the National Railroad Partnership Program (NRPP)—to include grade crossing projects. 

For communities interested in programs like CRISI, Rail Crossing Elimination (RCE), and the newly named National Railroad Partnership Program (NRPP), GoRail’s Rail Grant Hub remains a go-to resource for grant deadlines, tips, and case studies — designed to help local leaders prepare successful applications. 

Feeley also highlighted the importance of encouraging innovation without being overly prescriptive, especially as new technologies emerge across the transportation sector. “I mean, if we’re doing driverless cars and all kinds of other stuff with innovation and AI, we should also be applying those principles to the railroad industry,” he said. 

From Capitol Hill, Mark Ratto, Staff Director for the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, reinforced that Chairman Graves would like to pass a full transportation reauthorization out of the House by the end of the year—an aggressive timeline that would likely lead with consideration of a rail title followed by highways. For committee leadership, he said, the theme for the bill “is enabling a modern, efficient and safe freight and passenger rail system.” 

Ratto also underscored that reauthorization will be a member-driven process, noting that his office solicited input from stakeholders and will consider all submissions. “Chairman Graves has worked to return this committee to the place it had previously been for a number of years, which was a bipartisan work committee, not a showboat committee, but a bipartisan work committee.” 

Ratto echoed Feeley’s focus on regulatory and project delivery reform, saying that they’d like to shift the FRA toward performance-based frameworks that prioritize outcomes while giving railroads flexibility in how they achieve them.  

“The FRA’s regulatory framework is 50 years old. It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t kept pace with the changes in technology,” he said, highlighting that these goals are bipartisan based on feedback they’ve seen from Democratic members. “I think they understand the technology is changing, the processes are changing. It’s in the interest of everybody to have a more efficient, safer railroad network.” 

He also pointed to the strong bipartisan support for programs like CRISI and RCE, which are typically oversubscribed because of their popularity. “To the extent that we can increase the amount of funding up there and fund more projects going forward, that would be a great outcome.” 

Representing Class I railroads, Melissa Connolly, Assistant VP of Government Affairs at the Association of American Railroads (AAR), emphasized the value of multimodal grant programs like Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA), Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD), and Multimodal Project Discretionary programs like MEGA and Rural, which allow private railroads to partner on public infrastructure. Railroads are also advocating for expansion of and improvements to the application process for the popular RCE program targeting crossing eliminations and improvements. 

“We don’t receive direct federal funding for our infrastructure — we’re entirely privately owned and maintained,” said Connolly. Still, public partnerships are critical because they can serve “a broader public good, keeping the supply chain moving, improving safety in communities, and improving the overall transportation network of the entire US.”  

Connolly stressed the need for permitting reform, including codified time clocks, intermediate deadlines, and categorical exclusions to speed up projects without sacrificing environmental review—echoing the bipartisan appetite for such reforms underscored by Ratto.  

She also raised policy priorities like defending technology-neutral safety regulation and fixing the Highway Trust Fund so that it operates as a true user-pays system rather than requiring general taxpayer funds. “That’s not how it’s meant to work,” said Connolly. “The Highway Trust Fund is supposed to be self-sustaining through gas taxes and other provisions. So we’ve been really encouraging Congress to look at ways to account for how much different vehicle classes—especially bigger, heavier trucks—are costing in damage to the highways.” 

American Short Line and Regional Rail Road Association (ASLRRA) President Chuck Baker started by offering more context on the average short line railroad, which is typically a small business, sometimes with only a couple dozen employees and far smaller revenues than Class I operators. “But collectively, if it’s 600 of them, you know that’s about 50,000 miles of track—about one-third of the national rail network by mileage—but only about 6% of the revenue,” he said. This distinction from Class I railroads means that, for some short line operators, public funds are critical to keeping operations afloat and safe. 

“For short lines, the two biggest causes of derailments are broken rail and wide gauge—that means bad track and bad ties,” he said. “We invest a large portion of our own money, typically one-quarter to one-third of a given short line’s revenue goes back into infrastructure… but without the ability to access some public funds through CRISI, these projects just literally can’t get done.”  

Baker echoed the other panelists’ calls for faster grant processing, noting his cautious optimism that the FRA is committed to improvements. He also touched on the fairness issue in highway funding, pointing out that large trucks are significantly underpaying for the infrastructure damage they cause.  

On the question of growth for short lines, Baker emphasized that short lines stay very close to their customers: “It’s really like customer by customer, carload by carload—kind of like this grind it out, hand-to-hand combat to grow the business.” 

Connolly wrapped the session with a timely reminder: “All politics is local. These members of Congress go home, they read their local papers. The work [rail advocates are] doing on the ground is incredibly important for the success of our industry and our partnership with the communities where we operate.” 

The overarching message was clear: Stay grant-ready, stay engaged with Congress, and keep telling your local rail story. As GoRail President Michael Gaynor said, “Between new federal programs and the coming reauthorization, now is the time for communities to be proactive about rail opportunities.” 

If you’re ready to speak up for smart freight rail policies, visit our Action Center and join the Rail Champions campaign today.