49 U.S.C. § 24904 — Northeast Corridor planning

(a) Northeast Corridor Service Development Plan. (1) By March 31, 2022, the Northeast Corridor Commission (the "Commission," created under section 24905) had to send Congress a service development plan. (2) That plan must identify key repair, capacity-expansion, and capital projects; give a coordinated, consensus-based 15-year plan; identify service goals and the investment needed to reach them; give a realistic delivery-constrained strategy covering capital investment phasing, workforce needs, and how to manage resources and mitigate construction impacts; and include a financial strategy showing funding needs and possible sources. (3) The Commission must update this plan at least once every 5 years. (b) Northeast Corridor Capital Investment Plan. (1) By November 1 each year, the Commission must build an annual capital investment plan and send it to the Secretary of Transportation and the relevant Senate and House committees. (2) That plan must reflect coordination across the whole Corridor; combine the separate capital plans of Amtrak, states, and commuter authorities using the cost-allocation policy from section 24905(c); cover the coming 5 fiscal years; document, notwithstanding section 24902(b), the projects advancing the service development plan's goals and the asset-management needs identified in Corridor asset management plans, after weighing the benefits and costs of the investments, project readiness, operational effects, and federal and non-federal funding availability; sort capital projects into the categories used in section 24319(c)(2)(C), and separately note any that span more than one category; and include a financial plan naming funding sources and financing methods, the status of cost-sharing agreements under the cost policy, which projects the Commission expects will get federal money, and which entity or entities are expected to get that money and carry out each project. (3) The Commission must require this information be submitted early enough to let affected agencies review and coordinate before the plan is submitted. (c) Failure To Develop a Capital Investment Plan. If the Commission doesn't produce a capital investment plan for a given fiscal year, that year's Northeast Corridor account money (from section 24317(b)) can only be spent on the capital projects and programs listed in the prior year's plan. (d) Northeast Corridor Capital Asset Management System. (1) Amtrak and other infrastructure owners that provide or support Corridor intercity rail service must develop, use, and update an asset management system to build their submissions to the capital investment plan. (2) That system's submissions must be consistent with the transit asset management system defined in section 5326(a)(3), and must include an inventory of the owner's capital assets, an assessment of their condition, a description of the resources and processes needed to bring or keep them in good repair, and a description of how their condition has changed since the prior plan. (e) Definition of Northeast Corridor. In this section, "Northeast Corridor" means the main line between Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., plus the branch lines connecting to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Springfield, Massachusetts, and Spuyten Duyvil, New York — including the facilities and services used to run and maintain those lines.