The Midwest’s new state-supported passenger train, the Borealis, will receive up to $38.6 million in federal funding to help cover the service’s operating costs through its first six years of service. The money comes from the Federal Railroad Administration’s Restoration & Enhancement Grant Program (R&E) selections for fiscal years 2021-2024 and is the largest amount of just six projects nationwide chosen in this round of funding.

Borealis, the Midwest’s newest state-supported passenger train, burst onto the scene in mid-May with eye-popping ridership and, maybe, a small profit. According to Amtrak’s monthly performance reports for May 2024 through August 2024, the Borealis, which launched on May 21 with one daily round-trip between Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, Minn., carried 6,600 passengers in its first 10 days of revenue operation. It then carried 19,400 passengers in June, 21,300 in July and 22,300 in August.

Midwestern passenger rail plans got a major boost in early December as the vast majority of corridors submitted by MIPRC member states and endorsed by MIPRC to the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor ID & Development program  were selected for its first round of funding. For each chosen route, the project’s sponsor will work closely with the FRA and receive $500,000 in “seed money,” with no non-federal matching funds required, as well as receive preference in future rounds of the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail  grant program.

While formal applications to the new federal Corridor Identification & Development Program aren’t due until March 20, "expression of interest" letters solicited by the FRA starting in May 2022 and submitted by state DOTs and other interested parties, give a preliminary indication of which Midwestern corridors and city pairs are likely to compete in the program’s inaugural round of funding.

Two Midwestern passenger rail projects were among 11 winners of Federal-State Partnership for State of Good Repair (SOGR) Program grants announced in August by the U.S. Department of Transportation  (U.S. DOT).

For the second year in a row, Illinois and Michigan have landed passenger rail-related RAISE grant awards.

Passenger rail-related projects in Illinois, Kansas and Michigan are among the winners of inaugural Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grants program, which is the former TIGER/BUILD grant program renamed and repurposed.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Nov. 19 announced nearly $1 billion worth of funding was awarded to 90 surface transportation infrastructure projects in 47 states, the District of Columbia and Guam. Fiscal Year 2021 RAISE grants are for planning and capital investments, for projects that will have a significant local or regional impact, a U.S. DOT press release said.

The final piece of the local funding puzzle for a second daily train between the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago fell into place on June 26 when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a transportation omnibus funding bill that includes the state’s share of non-federal money for the long-planned project.