All Aboard Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill defines definitions including electrification infrastructure, zero-emission locomotive, high-performance rail service, environmental justice community, and other rail terms, creates state rail formula grant program with .5B over 5 years, minimum M per state, for rail planning, operations, and infrastructure with zero-emission goals by 2035-2047, and creates competitive grants for rail electrification including purchasing rail lines, rebuilding locomotives, installing catenary, updating yards, with project labor agreements required. It relies on grants, compliance mandates, appropriations, and definition changes. The main policy areas are Transportation, Environment, Labor, and Housing.
Who Benefits and How
Amtrak could gain revenue opportunities, State transportation departments could gain revenue opportunities, and State and regional rail authorities could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Rail carriers receiving grant funds would take on compliance duties, Federal taxpayers could face higher costs, and Diesel locomotive manufacturers could lose revenue opportunities.
Key Provisions
- Defines definitions including electrification infrastructure, zero-emission locomotive, high-performance rail service, environmental justice community, and other rail terms.
- Creates state rail formula grant program with .5B over 5 years, minimum M per state, for rail planning, operations, and infrastructure with zero-emission goals by 2035-2047.
- Creates competitive grants for rail electrification including purchasing rail lines, rebuilding locomotives, installing catenary, updating yards, with project labor agreements required.
- Creates b for intercity partnership, B for rail improvement grants, B for Amtrak, prioritizing electrification and high-performance rail with Class I railroad eligibility for electrification only.
- Creates m EPA grant program to address air pollution from railyards under Clean Air Act sections 103 and 105.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill defines definitions including electrification infrastructure, zero-emission locomotive, high-performance rail service, environmental justice community, and other rail terms, creates state rail formula grant program with .5B over 5 years, minimum M per state, for rail planning, operations, and infrastructure with zero-emission goals by 2035-2047, and creates competitive grants for rail electrification including purchasing rail lines, rebuilding locomotives, installing catenary, updating yards, with project labor agreements required.
Key Policy Areas
Transportation, Environment, Labor, Housing
Primary Purpose
The bill defines definitions including electrification infrastructure, zero-emission locomotive, high-performance rail service, environmental justice community, and other rail terms, creates state rail formula grant program with .5B over 5 years, minimum M per state, for rail planning, operations, and infrastructure with zero-emission goals by 2035-2047, and creates competitive grants for rail electrification including purchasing rail lines, rebuilding locomotives, installing catenary, updating yards, with project labor agreements required.
Policy Domains
Rail Investment and Electrification
Identified Gains
- Amtrak
- State transportation departments
- State and regional rail authorities
- Rail workers and organized labor
- Electric rail infrastructure companies
Identified Costs
- Rail carriers receiving grant funds
- Federal taxpayers
- Diesel locomotive manufacturers
- Construction contractors on rail projects
- Freight railroads operating polluting railyards
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Markey (for himself, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Murphy, …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, …
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Amtrak, Amtrak and intercity passenger rail, Class I freight railroads (electrification partnerships only)
Positive-direction: Amtrak, Amtrak and intercity passenger rail, Class I freight railroads (electrification partnerships only), Passenger rail operators
Negative-direction: Diesel freight railroads, Freight railroads operating polluting railyards, Rail carriers receiving grant funds
EPA air quality programs, State and regional rail authorities, State transportation departments
Communities along rail corridors, Communities near railyards, Environmental justice communities near railyards
Apprenticeship training programs, Organized labor unions, Rail workers and organized labor
Diesel locomotive manufacturers, Electric locomotive and rolling stock manufacturers, Electric rail infrastructure companies
Positive-direction: Electric locomotive and rolling stock manufacturers, Electric rail infrastructure companies
Negative-direction: Diesel locomotive manufacturers
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "amtrak"
- → National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak)
- "secretary"
- → Secretary of Transportation
- "administrator"
- → Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration
- "epa_administrator"
- → Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Intercity passenger rail designed to meet current and future demand in capacity, travel times, reliability, and efficiency
Locomotive that does not emit any criteria pollutant, toxic pollutant, or greenhouse gas from any onboard source at any power setting
Overhead wire in-motion charging technology and associated infrastructure, including battery electric technology for railyards
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology