LEWISTOWN — While the uncertainty of federal funding under President Donald Trump is jeopardizing long-delayed improvements for intercity train service, railroad officials say that won’t derail upgrades for the Lewistown Junction Train Station.

Mark Spada, president of the Western Pennsylvanians for Passenger Rail), said documents from AMTRAK still show the Lewistown station receiving improvements starting with fiscal year 2026.

“Those upgrades will be done by Amtrak and are separate from the work Norfolk Southern is doing to their tracks, switches, etc. for the second Pennsylvanian,” Spada explained.

Amtrak’s funding is coming from the infrastructure bill passed several years ago. In November 2023, it was announced that the Lewistown Junction Train Station was supposed to receive $2.1 million in upgrades.

“The federal grant reported in recent days is not slated for station work,” Spada added. “PennDOT previously said that money would go towards the seven of the 11 (Norfolk Southern) projects not listed as early-action projects, those which (Norfolk Southern) says is required to get the second train running.”

That’s good news for supporters of adding more trips. Intercity train service, which was poised to leverage a historic federal investment to add more trips to Harrisburg and New York City as well as expanding into the Midwest is in question. Such improvements have promised major economic benefits for the Pittsburgh region.

While some federal funding is guaranteed, discretionary funds — or projects that have been awarded but are not yet contracted — could be withdrawn.

This includes the $144 million slated to add a daily round trip to the existing service between Pittsburgh and New York City. Besides connecting to the Big Apple, the train would improve cross-state service to Harrisburg and Philadelphia, and many other locales in between.

At a recent legislative hearing, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll expressed optimism.

“I’m going to believe that a discretionary grant that was provided during the last administration would be honored by the new administration,” he told reporters in Harrisburg. “I’m going to live in a world where the commitments that were made, short of an obligation, will stand.”

The Trump administration, especially in its second incarnation, has not been characterized by stability and deference to precedent. And his first term wasn’t good for passenger rail, either.

Only one month after the 2017 inauguration, Trump proposed cutting AMTRAK’s budget by 13 percent, centered mostly on halting new construction and long-distance subsidies.

Meanwhile, AMTRAK was breaking ridership records in the Northeast Corridor — the region most suited to high-speed rail — and brought its operating deficit down to $29.8 million. AMTRAK was even projected to turn a profit before the pandemic disrupted transit trends.

According to experts, most rail agencies, including almost all in Europe, operate at a deficit and are subsidized by the government to keep fares affordable. This is because the connectedness provided by rail carries significant public benefits, both socially and economically.

In Trump’s second term, with reality television personality Sean Duffy serving as U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Amtrak’s future feels less than secure. Feasibility studies to map new routes connecting Pittsburgh and Chicago via Columbus and Fort Wayne might never happen.

Pittsburgh is a historic rail hub for a reason: It is located within a few hundred miles of nearly every major population center north of the Smokies and east of the Mississippi.