OMAHA, Neb. – The federal government is giving $2.4 billion in rail grants to help pay for 122 projects nationwide, with more than half of the money going to smaller railroads.

The announced grants Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration will go to projects in 41 states and Washington, D.C. Most of the money will go toward upgrading railroads and bridges. But some of the grants will be used to bolster training and explore cleaner-burning alternatives to long-relied diesel railroads. Some small railways will also get help to upgrade to more efficient locomotives.

A large part of the money comes from The Infrastructure Act of 2021 which President Joe Biden supported. Last year, the administration handed $1.4 billion in these rail grants.

“Each project advances a future where our supply chains are stronger, passenger rail more accessible and freight movement safer and more efficient,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Some of the grants will also help address railway safety issues which became widespread from Norfolk Southern the train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio in February 2023 and spilled a cocktail of dangerous chemicals that caught fire. Regulators have urged railroads to improve safety, and the industry has stepped up a series of initiatives on your own. But they have bigger changes that lawmakers proposed after the disastrous derailment deadlocked in Congress and little progress it was made in the current election year.

The biggest project is a $215 million grant that will help pay for the replacement of a Hudson River bridge that CSX owns between Albany and Rensselaer, New York, on which Amtrak relies heavily. The state is paying the other 60 percent of the $634.8 million cost of the project, which will allow two trains and pedestrians to cross the river at the same time. Currently, about 12 Amtrak trains and several freight trains cross the bridge, built in 1901, each day.

In Illinois, nearly $160 million will go toward strengthening Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern lines through Springfield and help pave the way for a higher-speed rail connection between Chicago and St. Louis.

A grant of up to $100 million will help strengthen the tracks Amtrak uses against climate change threats and improve track reliability in Southern California’s Orange County.

Several grants, including one worth more than $48 million, will go toward developing hydrogen-powered locomotives that could one day help the rail industry drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Other grants include $67 million to expand an intermodal rail yard in Michigan, where containers are moved between trains and trucks. Nearly $73 million will go toward improvements at the Muskego Rail Yard in Milwaukee.

But most of the money — nearly $1.3 billion — will go to 81 projects at smaller railroads across the country. Chuck Baker, president of the trade group American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association, said the grants will significantly help those smaller railroads.

“Congress and the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) can trust that short lines will use these public dollars to provide new and efficient ways to serve customers, connecting small towns and rural America to U.S. and international markets,” Baker said.