Capitol Hill Roundup: News on WAS, Amtrak Board and Brightline

by Sean Jeans-Gail | VP of Gov't Affairs + Policy

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While the focus in Washington, D.C. has been on the impending government shutdown, several important rail stories broke over the past week.

As always, Rail Passengers has been tracking these developments on behalf of our members, and we’ve included a summary of the most important developments for your perusal.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) announced last week that Amtrak and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation (USRC) Boards of Directors have unanimously agreed to approve a renegotiated cooperative agreement that will restore direct federal control over Washington Union Station.

USDOT says the new agreement will help fast track restoration efforts, improve security, and attract new economic development.

As part of the agreement, Amtrak will return its D.C. offices to Union Station. Amtrak moved its headquarters from Union Station down the block to 1 Massachusetts Avenue in 2017; Amtrak’s lease on that office space is set to expire in 2028. The USDOT argues that moving Amtrak back to Union Station will allow “Amtrak’s taxpayer-funded office expenses to be reinvested in a federal asset rather than being spent on private realty.”

The announcement also stated that USDOT is directing Amtrak to pursue a “back to basics” approach to the station, which suggests the railroad will pursue a less ambitious redevelopment plan than the current “2nd Century Plan” it has outlined for the station. An approach that prioritizes delivering lower-cost upgrades to platforms and passenger concourses in a timely fashion would be welcomed by many passengers.

The United States Senate confirmed Robert Gleason to the Amtrak Board of Directors last week, part of a group of 48 Trump Administration nominees that were approved en bloc. The confirmation came after a decision by Senate Republicans to approve lower-level nominations by a simple majority vote, a departure from Senate procedures.

During his confirmation hearing, Gleason—a Pennsylvania native and the former Chair of the Pennsylvania Republican Party—underscored his personal history with rail travel. He recounted how the decline of rail service in his hometown mirrored the economic and social decline of the region more generally:

In the first half of the twentieth century, my hometown of Johnstown was connected to the rest of the world by the Pennsylvania Railroad. Trains with iconic names like the Red Arrow, Broadway Limited, the Fort Pitt, and the Clevelander—25 daily passenger trains—all stopped in Johnstown. I was a regular rail passenger traveling back and forth to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce.

Our town was bypassed by the interstate highway system, and most airlines overflew us. The region began a downhill slide. As passenger train service dwindled, we are now only served by two trains a day.

In addition to my personal experiences with the benefits of rail connections and the potentially devastating effects of a community not being on the main transportation grid, I am honored to be nominated to join the Amtrak Board and continue in public service. My civilian government experience makes me well-qualified for the role of Amtrak director.

“It is clear from his testimony and from his responsiveness to inquiries from members of the committee that Mr. Gleason would be an excellent addition to the Amtrak Board of Directors,” said Rail Passengers' President & CEOJim Mathews, while urging the Senate to confirm Mr. Gleason. “It is refreshing to see someone with such a firm understanding that passenger trains are economic engines for the towns they serve.”

The USDOT transferred $42 million in funds to Brightline Florida to advance critical rail safety projects along the corridor. The funds were part of grants approved by the FRA under the Biden Administration which had yet to be obligated. The grants were caught up in a freeze of the distribution of funds mandated by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in January 2025, part of an unprecedented USDOT-wide review of infrastructure grants approved under the Biden Administration.

USDOT provided a summary of the safety grants, some of which have been waiting to be obligated for more than three years:

• $24.9 million announced in August 2022 to the Florida Department of Transportation for improvements to 330 highway-railroad crossings, along 195 miles of corridor, including fencing, crossing delineators, crisis support signage and other intrusion prevention mitigations.
• A grant for $1.6 million announced in September 2023 for a Trespassing Identification and Classification System under the CRISI Grant Program for FY22. The project will advance a technology that will provide real-time alerts and aggregate data to generate heat-maps of trespassing and potential collision events on the Florida East Coast Railway right of way from Miami to Cocoa.
• A grant for $15.4 million announced in June 2023 to increase safety at 21 grade crossings along the Brightline/Florida East Coast Railway corridor with additional crossing gates and delineators.
• A grant for up to $150,000 announced in October 2024 for Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to support overtime costs for targeted enforcement of pedestrian trespassing at identified hot spots.