By Staff Reporter
LOCKPORT — The 40-mile freight line that runs from Lockport through Orleans County to Brockport is getting $9.64 million from Washington to replace rail and ties, rebuild a bridge and resurface six road crossings. It is one of the last checks of its kind, at least for now.
The grant to the Falls Road Railroad was part of a $2.3 billion round of federal rail awards that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Monday. According to Trains, it was the final round of the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements program, known as CRISI, paid for by the advance appropriations in the 2021 infrastructure law. The stopgap Congress passed in September did not renew that money for next year.
So the line through Medina, Albion and Holley gets its upgrade. Whether the next short line in Western New York can count on the same program depends on a lame-duck Congress that has not yet written a bill to pay for it.
What Lockport and Orleans County get
According to the announcement from Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office, the Falls Branch Track, Crossing, & Bridge Project covers “approximately 40 miles of track and rail infrastructure between Brockport and Lockport.” The work will replace rail and ties, add ballast, resurface the main line, rehabilitate a bridge and resurface six at-grade crossings. Neither the senators nor the department said which bridge.
The railroad has to put up its own money too. Trains reported that Falls Road will cover 40% of the project’s cost, double the 20% minimum the program requires. A bigger local share is one of the things federal reviewers weigh.
Falls Road is owned by Genesee Valley Transportation, the Batavia-based short-line operator, according to Orleans Hub. The line has been pieced back together with smaller grants. In February 2025 the Orleans Economic Development Agency said the railroad had won a $1,652,330 state Industrial Access grant for new turnouts and rail, on top of a $480,000 Northern Border Regional Commission grant in 2019. EDA officials said then that new sidings could serve Stockham Lumber in Holley and the former Bernzomatic plant in Medina.
“This is an important artery for our county,” EDA board member Craig Tuohey said at that meeting, as reported by Orleans Hub.
The same round sent $11.2 million to the Ontario Midland Railroad in Wayne County, $6.54 million to repower New York & Atlantic locomotives on Long Island, and $3.17 million to the New York, Susquehanna & Western between Cortland and Virgil. The four New York awards total about $30.5 million, roughly 1.3% of the national round. A separate $13.6 million award to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad, the Genesee & Wyoming line that runs south out of Buffalo, was listed under Pennsylvania, for work on two bridges and a tunnel; the announcements did not say where those structures are.
Two parties, one grant, two stories
Both sides of the aisle claimed the money on Monday.
“Under President Trump, USDOT is investing in rail projects that will unleash local economies and deliver real safety upgrades,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in the department’s release, as published by Railpace. “These improvements are all part of our efforts to rekindle a Golden Age of Rail in America.”
Federal Railroad Administration chief David Fink added a jab. “These thoughtful, targeted investments will reduce congestion and improve operations instead of wasting tax dollars on politically driven boondoggles,” he said.
Mr. Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, credited the law he helped write. “Thanks to significant federal funding from my Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law, New York railroad companies from Lockport to Wayne County now have the resources they need to repair aging tracks that the region’s top employers, including Coca-Cola Fairlife, Xerox, Keurig Dr. Pepper/Motts, and more, rely on to grow,” he said. “These rail upgrades mean fewer trucks on the road, lower fuel consumption, and more jobs.”
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that funds transportation, said, “From Wayne County to Brockport and Lockport, our local railways keep New Yorkers and our businesses moving.”
The short-line industry was happiest of all. Its trade group, the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, said 87 of the 105 projects, worth $1.885 billion, went to short lines. “Simply put, this is the single biggest funding commitment for short line railroad infrastructure in the 199-year history of the industry,” association president Chuck Baker said, according to Trains.
Demand far outran the money
The round was oversubscribed more than five to one. Trains reported that the 105 winners were picked from 368 applications seeking $12.2 billion. This round combined two years of money, fiscal 2025 and 2026, at $1 billion a year in advance appropriations from the 2021 law.
That pipeline has now run out. Congress extended surface transportation programs through Dec. 11 in the continuing resolution signed Sept. 2, but the extension “does not restore” the infrastructure law’s advance appropriations for fiscal 2027, the law firm Holland & Knight noted in an Oct. 9 analysis. CRISI is on the list of programs left without new money, along with Safe Streets and Roads for All and the Bridge Investment Program.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a five-year, roughly $580 billion reauthorization, the BUILD America 250 Act, 62-2 in May. It would keep CRISI going, but it has not reached the House floor, and the Senate committees have not released their own text. Holland & Knight predicted another extension into 2027 is likely.
The questions for Western New York
For towns along Route 31, the immediate questions are practical: when the work starts, which crossings and which bridge are in line, and how long trains and drivers will see delays. Selected projects typically still need a signed grant agreement with the Federal Railroad Administration before money moves, and the announcements gave no schedule.
The bigger question belongs to Western New York’s delegation. Short lines like Falls Road and the Buffalo & Pittsburgh carry freight for manufacturers, farms and lumber yards that would otherwise ride on trucks. If Congress leaves CRISI out of the next highway bill, or funds it only through annual appropriations at a lower level, the next round of applicants from Niagara, Orleans and Erie counties will compete for less.
The Buffalo Chronicle has asked Genesee Valley Transportation for its construction timeline and which bridge is included, and will update this story with its response.
Featured photo: A Falls Road Railroad bridge in Lockport. Wilson44691 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
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