The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair Grant Program (Partnership Program). The NOFO includes US$ 291.4 million in grant funding and is the third such NOFO for the Partnership Program to help repair and rehabilitate intercity passenger railroad assets.

The Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) Partnership Program and remaining the Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) funding, which includes US$ 198 million made available by the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020, and US$ 93.4 million that remains unawarded from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2019, will support capital projects that repair, replace, or rehabilitate qualified railroad assets to reduce the state of good repair backlog and improve intercity passenger rail performance.

Eligible applications may involve railroad infrastructure, equipment, or facility assets such as track, ballast, switches and interlockings, bridges, communication and signal systems, power systems, highway-rail grade crossings, stations, passenger cars, locomotives, maintenance-of-way equipment, and yards, terminal areas, and maintenance shops.

Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis. FRA will consider how the projects support key Departmental objectives, including enhancing economic vitality; leveraging federal funding; using innovative approaches to improve safety and expedite project delivery; and holding grant recipients accountable for achieving specific, measurable outcomes. In addition, selection preference will be given to applications with a proposed non-Federal share that is comprised of more than one source of funding and applications that indicate strong project readiness. The Federal share of a project’s total cost must not exceed 80 percent.