Feds approve $647 million grant for Caltrain electrification project [View all]

[Rollo]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

In a stunning reversal, the Federal Transit Administration said Monday that it will approve a $647 million grant to electrify Caltrain tracks, nearly doubling capacity on the overburdened San Jose to San Francisco commute route.

The approval comes after months of delays and worries by Caltrain officials and Bay Area leaders that the Trump administration would cancel the grant. If the funding hadn’t been approved by June 30, the $2 billion track electrification project would have lost key construction contracts.

The electrification work will mean faster and more reliable trains on a 51-mile stretch of the Caltrain corridor along the Peninsula, offering more than 110,000 rides per day, up from 60,000. The project will also create 10,000 jobs in California and around the country. The first electric trains are expected to be in service by early 2021, if not sooner, and construction on the project should start in 60 to 90 days.

“This news, quite clearly, is electrifying,” said Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO Carl Guardino. “This is all the major holidays wrapped into one with a beautiful Caltrain bow around it.”

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/05/22/federal-fta-grant-caltrain-electrification/

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This indeed is very good news not only for the Caltrain service between SF and Silicon Valley, but also for the California High Speed Rail project which will use the electrified Caltrain route through the Peninsula.

Despite the naysayers, it looks like California may finally catch up with the rest of the civilized world in moving people around in the most efficient manner.