The Federal Aviation Administration collects a Passenger Facility Charge from all airline passengers to help fund airport maintenance which currently includes maintenance of roads and rail lines on airport property. Under current rules, the FAA can also pay for roads and rail lines that connect to a single external location and are designed to be only used by airport employees and passengers. This works well for roads, you just have to connect to the nearest highway.
It works less well for rail lines. A rail line that only connects two stations often does not work for a train. If there is a rail line for the this line to connect to, every person needs to either change trains, change buses, or park their car first. And there may not be a rail line to connect to. If a locality can't get funding for airline workers and passengers from the FAA for rail projects, they are less likely to build a rail line in that area at all.
(via the Midwest High Speed Rail Association)
For more information here is the formal notice of rule change by the FAA: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/05/03/2016-10334/passenger-facility-charge-pfc-program-eligibility-of-ground-access-projects-meeting-certain-criteria
It includes a link to make a comment. Here is mine:
I support the changes that the FAA has proposed to amend this policy to allow rail lines that connect multiple locations to use money from the airport facility charge program to build connections to airports and to extend lines beyond airports that already have rail connections. The FAA should consider paying for rail that is slightly outside the bounds of airport land in cases where doing so would save the FAA money.
(via the Midwest High Speed Rail Association)
