The Trump Administration is proposing to cut 25% of the funding for Amtrak’s busy Northeast Corridor operations, which link Westchester with Boston, Washington, D.C., and points in-between. At the same time, funding for less busy Amtrak routes that go into Republican-controlled states is being increased.
The New Rochelle train station is a stop for Amtrak’s long-distance trains in the Northeast corridor, and that’s where Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins and Congressman George Latimer of New York’s 16th Congressional District went to express their concerns about the proposed loss in funding.
Jenkins said, “This proposal is a serious blow to Westchester County and the entire Northeast. Slashing funding for the nation’s busiest rail corridor, while boosting less-used lines elsewhere, is not only shortsighted, it’s reckless. Infrastructure investments must be based on need and impact, not politics. I urge Congress to reject this proposal and stand with the communities that power the country’s economy.”
According to Latimer, “This is the most heavily traveled Amtrak route in the entire country. I am a weekly Amtrak rider and I see the growth in ridership; this is yet another bad business decision. Cutting this necessary funding is merely political payback to states in the Northeast. I will not support a budget that includes this cut.”
Amtrak’s overall budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, which began Oct. 1, 2024, was $2.63 billion. The Northeast Corridor received $1.14 billion. Trump’s FY 2026 budget asks for $850 million for the Northeast Corridor. The request for Amtrak’s National Network for FY 2026 is $1.58 billion, an increase from $1.29 billion in FY 2025.
Critics say that the proposed cut to the Northeast Corridor funding threatens to undermine reliability, delay modernization projects and disrupt the lives of thousands of local commuters.
“Westchester benefits from Amtrak mobility,” Latimer said. “Not only is there a station here in New Rochelle on the Northeast Corridor line but there are stations in Yonkers and Croton-Harmon that serve the Hudson Valley and give access between New York City and Albany. This is an essential service that complements the other transportation options that exist. The willingness to cut the Northeast Corridor by 25% is a bad business decision. A business mindset would not make this decision because you need alternatives in moving people from Point A to Point B.”
Latimer explained that in the Northeast Corridor, you have airplane service and you can still drive but when you cut service on mass transit rail you put more people in cars and you put more people in airplanes.
“That makes the skies and airports more crowded unnecessarily and it makes the highways more crowded unnecessarily,” Latimer said. “You wind up using more fossil fuels. I’m a regular commuter on this line going from New Rochelle to Washington. At earlier times in my life I used this route regularly to go from this area to Philadelphia and back. This is an efficient way to move people. This has a more flexible way of moving people than an airplane does.”
Latimer said that the decision to cut Northeast Corridor funding is mean-spirited and he has seen the Trump Administration do things deliberately to hurt the Northeastern states. He cited the administration’s current efforts to close Small Business Administration offices in the Northeast and maintaining the cap on SALT that limits the deductibility of state and local taxes from federal tax returns, as examples.
“This is a foolish business decision and the ramifications will be clear to everybody,” Latimer said.
