Short-line railroad leaders urge Congress to preserve and expand CRISI funding, cite $12 billion deferred-maintenance backlog

Short-line railroad operators and their advocates told the House Subcommittee on Rail that federal CRISI grants have been transformational but that slow federal processing and long award-to-obligation timelines limit the program's benefits.

"The backlog of projects to upgrade rail and bridges to modern standards on short lines is $12,000,000,000," Kristen Bevel, general counsel and chief legal officer at Pinsley Railroad Company and a vice president of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, told the committee. Bevel said short lines operate 850 miles for her company, and nationally there are roughly 600 short lines that manage a third of the freight network.

Bevel and other witnesses described how CRISI projects create local jobs, attract private investment, and enable first-and-last-mile service for shippers. "The CRISI program is the only federal grant program that short lines are eligible to apply for directly and it's been transformational," she said, urging Congress to make CRISI an advance-appropriation program to provide certainty for applicants.

Witnesses and members recommended administrative fixes to accelerate delivery: batch processing of categorical exclusions, more aggressive use of pre-award authority, and deadlines for agency processing to prevent multi-year lags between award announcement and contract obligation. Bevel and others said award-to-agreement timelines often extend a year or longer and that construction disbursement can take an additional 6–12 months after agreement execution.

Short-line witnesses pressed the committee to preserve CRISI and complementary programs such as the Section 130 grade-crossing program and to consider operational changes that would let small railroads apply and implement projects more quickly. No formal committee action was taken at the hearing.