I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4474 
To establish an intercity passenger rail service investment grant program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 16, 2021 
Mr. MCGOVERN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
A BILL 
To establish an intercity passenger rail service investment 
grant program. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Building Rail Across 
Intercity Networks To Ride Around Interior of the Nation 
Act’’ or the ‘‘BRAIN TRAIN Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF GRANT PROGRAM FOR HIGH- 
PERFORMANCE INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL 
SERVICE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 261 of title 49, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘§ 26107. Intercity passenger rail service investment 
program 
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) APPLICANT.—The term ‘applicant’ means 
Amtrak or a State, group of States, interstate com-
pact, or public agency established by 1 or more 
States with responsibility for providing intercity pas-
senger rail service. 
‘‘(2) CAPITAL
PROJECT.—The term ‘capital 
project’ means a project or program in a State rail 
plan developed under chapter 227 for— 
‘‘(A) acquiring, constructing, improving, or 
inspecting equipment, track, and track struc-
tures, or a facility of use in or for the primary 
benefit of intercity passenger rail service; 
‘‘(B) expenses incidental to the acquisition 
or construction (including designing, engineer-
ing, location surveying, mapping, environmental 
studies, and acquiring active or out of service 
rights-of-way); and 
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‘‘(C) payments for the capital portions of 
rail trackage rights agreements, highway-rail 
grade crossing improvements related to intercity 
passenger rail service, mitigating environmental 
impacts, communication and signalization im-
provements, relocation assistance, acquiring re-
placement housing sites, and acquiring, con-
structing, relocating, and rehabilitating replace-
ment housing. 
‘‘(3) HIGH-PERFORMANCE
RAIL.—The term 
‘high-performance rail’ means intercity passenger 
rail service that is designed to meet the current and 
future market demand for the transportation of peo-
ple, in terms of capacity, travel times, reliability, and 
efficiency. 
‘‘(4) INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE.— 
The term ‘intercity passenger rail service’ has the 
meaning given the term ‘intercity rail passenger 
transportation’ in section 24102. 
‘‘(5) SECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 
the Secretary of Transportation. 
‘‘(6) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means any of 
the 50 States or the District of Columbia. 
‘‘(b) ESTABLISHMENT.— 
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall estab-
lish an intercity passenger rail service investment 
program to promote high-performance rail transpor-
tation options. 
‘‘(2) GRANTS
AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary 
may award grants under this section to an applicant 
to finance capital projects for high-performance rail, 
including grants awarded in installments for projects 
lasting longer than 1 year. 
‘‘(c) APPLICATIONS.—Each applicant seeking a grant 
under this section shall submit an application to the Sec-
retary in such form and containing such information as 
the Secretary shall reasonably require. 
‘‘(d) COMPETITIVE GRANT SELECTION
AND CRI-
TERIA FOR GRANTS.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall— 
‘‘(A) establish criteria for selecting among 
capital projects that meet the criteria specified 
in paragraph (2); 
‘‘(B) conduct a national solicitation for ap-
plications; and 
‘‘(C) award grants on a competitive basis. 
‘‘(2) GRANT CRITERIA.—In selecting the recipi-
ents of intercity passenger rail grants under sub-
section (b)(2), the Secretary shall— 
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‘‘(A) require— 
‘‘(i) the project to be part of a State 
rail plan developed under chapter 227, or 
under the plan required under section 211 
of the Passenger Rail Investment and Im-
provement Act of 2008 (49 U.S.C. 24902 
note); 
‘‘(ii) the applicant or recipient to have 
the legal, financial, and technical capacity 
to carry out the project, satisfactory con-
tinuing control over the use of the equip-
ment or facilities, and the capability and 
willingness to maintain the equipment or 
facilities; 
‘‘(iii) the project to be based on the 
results of preliminary engineering studies 
or other planning; 
‘‘(iv) the applicant to provide suffi-
cient information upon which the Secretary 
can make the findings required under this 
subsection; 
‘‘(v) if an applicant has selected the 
proposed operator of its service, the appli-
cant to provide written justification to the 
Secretary showing why the proposed oper-
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