• The Bipartisan Policy Center, addressing deficits in the Highway Trust Fund, has said that “Congress would need a one-time increase to 40.8 cents/gallon to restore the gas tax to its value from 1993.” Read more here.

• In a victory for New York and New Jersey, a federal judge last Friday ordered the Trump administration to unfreeze federal funds for the Gateway tunnel project. The Gateway Development Commission and the New York and New Jersey attorneys general had filed suits to compel release of federal funds that had been withheld by the Trump administration since October. Gateway is the nation’s largest public works project, with the Hudson Tunnel slated to replace the 116-year-old North River Tunnel, servicing the Northeast Corridor.

  The USDOT appealed the judge’s decision and on Monday millions of dollars of federal funds were again put on hold.

  That hold expired at 5pm Thursday, and project funding is expected to start flowing again, at least until a February 23 hearing on the DOT’s appeal.

  Having exhausted all available reserves and credit, work on the Gateway Tunnel stopped February 6 and will not continue until the flow of federal dollars resumes. Nearly 1,000 jobs have been directly impacted by the shut down.

• Per Politico, at a department-wide town hall this week, USDOT Secretary Sean Duffy suggested that DOT’s various subagencies will experience reorganizations, as detailed in last week’s CRC Bulletin.

  At the same meeting, Duffy also announced that USDOT has no plans to undertake another “official” round of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, but that the agency may allow employees to opt into it on a case-by-case basis.

  When it comes to the department’s headcount, Duffy said he believes that, “as a whole,” “we’re at the right place, right now.”

  Duffy also said that a hiring freeze at DOT is no longer in effect, but that employees risk disciplinary action if they don’t return to their desks, saying, “unless there’s a second pandemic of some sort ... we’re not going back to telework.”

The Commuter Rail Coalition this week participated in AASHTO’s Council on Rail Transportation (CORT) meeting to discuss partnering with state DOTs to deliver on CRC’s legislative priorities for commuter rail.

CRC was represented at the event by co-founder Joe Giulietti (third from left, above), a former Connecticut DOT Commissioner who also led Metro-North Railroad and south Florida’s Tri-Rail.

Get all the details and RSVP HERE.

If you missed this year’s Passenger Rail Law Workshop, CRC and Kaplan Kirsch are making the companion guide available for purchase.

This fourth edition of the Passenger Rail Law Desk Reference delivers a comprehensive overview of the legal principles that underpin nearly every facet of passenger rail law, along with recent developments impacting the industry. Designed to support practitioners at every level, it presents essential information in clear, accessible sections.

Topics include:

• Historical Context and Regulatory Framework

• Property Interests in Rail Lines

• Funding and Financing

• Contracting and Procurement

• Operations, Safety, and Security

• Environmental Protection and Historic Preservation

• Labor and Employment Issues

Get yours for $65, including shipping. Order HERE.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Transit-Oriented Development Drives Housing, Mobility, and Economic Growth Across U.S. Cities (Metro)

• Legacy delivery models will fail US transit’s future (Turner & Townsend)

• South Shore Line investing $2.75 million in safety upgrades after 2024 death of Ball State graduate (WTHR)

• Monterey County Rail Extension project nearer to Caltrain connection (Monterey Herald)

• If Your City Has a Rail Crossing, Here’s What to Expect on Rail in 2026 (National League of Cities)

• Dallas votes to give up DART majority in bid to keep suburbs in system (Transit Talent)