On February 17, Reps. John Mica (R-Fla.) and Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) addressed the importance of improving the federal Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program during their testimony at a House hearing titled, “Sitting on our Assets: Rehabilitating and Improving our Nation’s Rail Infrastructure.”
Created in 1998, the RRIF program authorizes the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to lend up to $35 billion for railroad infrastructure improvements, equipment and facilities development. However, loan processing time is averaging about 13-and-a-half months instead of the 90 days stipulated in the RRIF law, said Mica, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, according to a prepared statement.
The program’s barriers need to be eliminated or reformed so “RRIF can be an innovative and successful way to finance rail infrastructure projects, including high-speed rail,” said Mica. “We need to stop sitting on our assets and make the RRIF program more accessible, faster and better utilized.”
The full story appears on the Progressive Railroading website.