23 U.S.C. § 130 — Railway-highway crossings

(a) Subject to section 120 and subsection (b), the full cost of projects to remove railroad-crossing hazards — separating or protecting grades, rebuilding grade-crossing structures, relocating highways to remove grade crossings, and fixing crossings blocked by idling trains — can be paid from funds apportioned under section 104. If moving a piece of railway would remove the hazard more cheaply than those methods, the full cost of that relocation can also be paid the same way, subject to section 120 and subsection (b). (b) The Secretary can sort crossing-hazard-elimination projects into types and set, for each type, a percentage of construction cost that represents the net benefit to the railroad — used to figure the railroad's share of the cost. That percentage can never be more than 10 percent. The Secretary decides which type each project falls into. (c) A railroad involved in a crossing project paid for (fully or partly) under this title or earlier laws owes the United States its net-benefit share, as classified under subsection (b). It can pay this by paying the state transportation department directly, which then credits it to the project's cost — and payment can be made in materials and labor instead of cash. If the railroad doesn't pay within six months after the project is finished, it becomes liable to the United States directly, and the Secretary must ask the Attorney General to sue to collect it. The Attorney General can bring that suit in federal court, and the United States can recover whatever the court decides the railroad owes. Anything recovered goes to miscellaneous government receipts. (d) Survey and Schedule of Projects. Each state must survey and keep updating a list of all railroad crossings that might need separation, relocation, or protective devices, and must set and carry out a schedule of projects to address them. At minimum, that schedule must add warning signs at every crossing. (e) Funds for Railway-Highway Grade Crossings. (1) In general. (A) Before making the apportionment under section 104(b)(3) each year, the Secretary must set aside at least $245,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026, from highway safety improvement program money, for removing hazards, installing protective devices, replacing outdated warning devices, and the trespassing-safety use described in (B). (B) States may use this set-aside money for projects that reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries from trespassing at grade crossings. (C) These set-aside funds can be spent the same way funds apportioned under section 104(b)(1) are spent. (2) Special rule. If a state shows the Secretary it has already met all its needs for protective devices at crossings, it can use this money for other highway safety improvement purposes instead. (f) Apportionment. (1) Formula. Half of the set-aside money is divided among states using the old formula in section 104(b)(3)(A) as it existed before the MAP-21 law; the other half is divided based on each state's share of the nation's total public railway-highway crossings. (2) Minimum apportionment. Regardless of the formula, each state gets at least half of one percent of the money. (3) Federal share. The federal government pays 100 percent of the cost of any project funded with this set-aside money. (g) Annual Report. (1) By August 31 each year, each state must report to the Federal Highway Administration on its progress carrying out the railway-highway crossings program and how effective its improvements have been. (2) Each report must assess (A) the costs of the different treatments the state used, and (B) how effective they were, measured by accident rates at the treated locations. (3) Within 30 days after accepting a state's report, the Federal Highway Administration must share it with the Federal Railroad Administration. (h) Use of Funds for Matching. Money authorized under this section can be given to a local government to use as matching funds, but only when the local government also puts up matching funds of its own for crossing improvements. (i) Incentive Payments for At-Grade Crossing Closures. (1) A state may use its section 130 money to pay local governments an incentive when they permanently close a public at-grade crossing under their control. (2) A state can't make that payment unless the railroad that owns the tracks also pays the local government an incentive for closing the crossing. (3) The state's payment can't be more than the lesser of the railroad's incentive payment or $100,000. (4) A local government that gets one of these payments must spend it on transportation safety improvements. (j) Bicycle Safety. States must consider bicycle safety when carrying out projects under this section. (k) Expenditure of Funds. A state can spend no more than 8 percent of its section 130 money on compiling and analyzing the data behind its subsection (g) reports. (l) National Crossing Inventory. (1) Within 1 year after the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008, or within 6 months after a new crossing opens (whichever is later), each state must report current information — including about warning devices and signage — on every previously unreported public crossing in the state, as the Secretary of Transportation specifies. (2) Starting no later than 2 years after that 2008 law, and by September 30 every year after that (or as the Secretary specifies), each state must keep reporting current information on every public crossing in the state.