The Federal Railroad Administration has approved 70 projects requiring $1.4 billion in federal grants.  The projects including 40 bridges were selected from 234 applications with funding provided from the $1 trillion Infrastructure Bill.

The grants were based on the probability of improving safety, increasing capacity and generating economic benefits.

Of the total, $600 million is allocated to freight-railroad projects and replacement of critical bridges that carry high levels of freight that are considered in need of repair.

Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, noted, “It’s fair to say that people look at America’s rail system and correctly say that it needs improvement.”  He cited, “Derailments on freight lines, protracted blocked crossings and lagging intercity passenger rail as symptomatic of a decline in service.”

The freight railroads claim to have spent upwards of $23 billion annually on the networks according to their trade association.  Despite this claim, the nation has been impacted by numerous derailments some of which have involved hazardous cargos.

 It is questioned whether federal funds should be assigned to improvement projects for track owned by either private our public traded companies.  A prerequisite of the grants should be that companies refrain from buy backs equivalent to federal funding and that funding should require at least some Company match.

Irrespective of funding, a viable and functional rail system is critical to the operation of the poultry industry. This is currently even more important with a seasonal drought-related decline in capacity on the Mississippi River system accompanied by soaring freight rates.