Episode
Is U.S. Passenger Rail Having a Big Moment? (Jim Mathews)
- Published
- Aug 11, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1794
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-brake-a-streetsblog-podcast-5075089/episodes/is-u-s-passenger-rail-having-a-big-moment-jim-mathews/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-brake-a-streetsblog-podcast-5075089/is-u-s-passenger-rail-having-a-big-moment-jim-mathews.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Secretary Sean Duffy withholding grants for America's first high speed rail line. Congress surprisingly showing up for Amtrak in its annual budget. Elon Musk pushing for privatization . A surprisingly strong showing for trains in the Senate's budget proposal , and advocates who have even bigger hopes for the future. It seems like every time you turn on the news, there's an explosive new headline about passenger rail in America — but what's really driving them all? On this episode of the Brake, we sat down with the most plugged-in rail advocate we know, Jim Mathews of the National Rail Passengers Association, to break down some of the biggest rail stories of the day and give us a sense of where the State of the Union stands for this critical mode. And along the way, we dig into some stories you might have missed, like the massive freight merger that should make Amtrak passengers nervous, and more.