The Association of American Railroads (AAR) is gearing up to fight provisions in the House's long-awaited surface transportation bill that would allow states to increase truck size and weight limits.

The bill to improve the nation's "crumbling" transportation infrastructure would accelerate road and bridge damage and result in taxpayer subsidies to the trucking industry, said AAR president and chief executive officer Ed Hamberger.

The truck size and weight provisions - proposed as part of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a five-year, $260bn transportation bill - would allow states to increase the truck weight limit to 97,000 pounds from the current 80,000-pound limit, and would allow double- and triple-trailer trucks to travel over longer distances.

"Americans don't want 97,000-pound trucks or huge multi-trailers up to 120 feet long on our nation's highways," Hamberger said. "Nor is it fair that even more of the public's tax dollars will be used to pay for the road and bridge damage inflicted by massive trucks."

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