# Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2021

This bill provides federal funding and support to help eliminate dangerous intersections where railroad tracks cross over or under roads and highways. These crossings, called "grade separations," are a major safety concern because they force cars, trucks, and pedestrians to share space with trains, creating the risk of serious accidents and deaths.

The bill recognizes that many communities across the country have railroad crossings at ground level where vehicles and trains meet on the same plane. When a train approaches, traffic gets backed up, emergency vehicles can't pass through, and there's always the potential for a collision. The solution is to either raise the road above the tracks or lower the tracks below the road so they don't intersect. However, these projects are extremely expensive—often costing tens of millions of dollars per crossing—which is why most communities can't afford to fix them on their own.

By establishing a federal funding program, this bill helps states and local governments pay for these grade separation projects. This means communities that have been stuck dealing with dangerous crossings for years might finally get the resources to make them safer. The practical benefits include fewer train-vehicle collisions, reduced traffic congestion around crossings, faster emergency response times, and improved quality of life for people living near railroad lines. For commuters, this could mean shorter travel times and less frustration waiting for trains to pass. For families living near crossings, it means significantly reduced risk of tragedy.

Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2021

García, Jesús G. "Chuy"

Building Much Needed Rail Grade Separations Act of 2021 This bill establishes a grade separation investment program to award competitive grants to certain entities for projects that <ul> <li>separate railway-highway grade crossings,</li> <li> improve safety by reducing the number of deaths and injuries at rail-highway crossings,</li> <li>increase the efficiency and reliability of the movement of people and freight over rail-highway crossings,</li> <li>increase the capacity of the freight and passenger rail system,</li> <li> reduce the amount of noise from trains, and</li> <li>improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from less idling at rail-highway crossings.</li> </ul> Among other requirements, the bill (1) requires grant awards for large projects (projects with total costs of greater than $100 million) to be at least $50 million, and for any other projects not less than $2.5 million; and (2) directs the Department of Transportation to consider a number of factors in awarding grants, including accident history at the rail-highway crossing over the last 10 years, the annual average daily motor vehicle, cyclist, and pedestrian traffic at the crossing, the likelihood of a collision based on the geometry of the crossing, and the number of critical facilities near the crossing.