US awards $1.24bn to remove level crossings in 37 states

By the TrainsNews newsroom · 31 October 2026

The US Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is awarding $1.24bn to 91 projects in 37 states to remove or upgrade level crossings, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on 30 October 2026. The money comes from the combined 2025-2026 round of the Railroad Crossing Elimination (RCE) grant programme and will pay for grade separations, crossing closures and better links between crossing equipment and road traffic signals, according to the FRA's statement.

The largest award on the FRA's list of selected projects goes to the New York State Department of Transportation, which receives up to $107.7m to replace the Roaring Brook Road crossing on Metro-North's Harlem Line with a grade separation. Caltrain's owner, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, gets up to $90.4m to lift the line over Broadway in Burlingame, California, and the Port Authority of Kansas City up to $72m to eliminate three crossings on its riverfront. In Texas, the state transport department receives $46m for an overpass carrying RM 2871 over a Union Pacific line in Fort Worth.

Not every grant pays for concrete. Of the 91 projects, 27 fund planning only, and around 40% include a construction phase, according to the FRA's project summaries. Georgia's transport department receives up to $31.8m to upgrade the interconnection between railway warning systems and road traffic signals at about 31 high-risk crossings. "The RCE grants announced today will provide communities nationwide with funding to make highway-rail grade crossings safer", FRA Administrator David Fink said in the statement. Duffy said the department had "invested nearly $10 billion in American rail this year alone".

Collisions have not fallen. US level crossings recorded 2,274 collisions and 285 deaths in 2025, according to preliminary FRA figures compiled by the safety charity Operation Lifesaver, against 2,201 collisions and 242 deaths in 2023. The programme, created by the 2021 infrastructure law, made its first awards in 2023, when more than $570m went to 63 projects in 32 states. This round is more than twice as large.

The Georgia grant shows how much can be gained without building a bridge. Where a crossing sits next to a road junction, cars waiting at a red light can queue across the tracks. Preemption links the crossing circuit to the traffic signals so that, when a train is detected, the lights clear the vehicles off the tracks before the barriers come down. A grade separation removes the conflict for good, but at a far higher cost: the New York award alone is worth close to 9% of the whole round. Some caution is needed on the figures. The amounts are maximums, each project still needs a grant agreement with the FRA, and planning grants may lead to schemes that need further federal money to be built.

The FRA will now negotiate grant agreements with the 91 recipients before any funds are released.

Sources: Federal Railroad Administration (30/10/2026); FRA, FY25-26 RCE selections: project summaries (30/10/2026); Operation Lifesaver, collisions and casualties by year (consulted 31/10/2026); US Department of Transportation (2023).

Photo: traffic waiting for a Caltrain at the Broadway level crossing in Burlingame, one of the projects funded in this round, December 2020. Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Written with AI assistance from the sources cited, reviewed by the TrainsNews editorial team. Real photo, credited below the image. Spotted an error? contact@trainsnews.com — Our AI policy