FTA greenlights Caltrain electrification funding

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) intends to sign a Full Funding Grant Agreement with Caltrain that would commit $647 million to the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project.

Caltrain electrification proponents lobby Capitol Hill

Companies whose employees depend on Caltrain to get to and from work in the Bay Area joined agency representatives in Washington, D.C., this past week to advocate for approval of a grant that would fund a modernization project.

Caltrain Electrification delay: Railway suppliers step up

Balfour Beatty and Stadler U.S. Inc., the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project’s principal contractors, have provided Caltrain with the flexibility needed to survive a deferred decision on a crucial federal grant imposed by the USDOT under pressure from California’s Republican delegation.

Commentary

Caltrain Electrification delay: Everyone loses

As we’ve been reporting and editorializing on for the past couple of weeks, Caltrain’s electrification project has been jeopardized by a delay of federal funding that is based on the state’s Republican delegation’s efforts to shut down the only-loosely connected high-speed rail program.

USDOT defers Caltrain electrification funding

Caltrain has warned that the viability of its project to electrify the 52-mile San Jose-San Francisco corridor may be in jeopardy after newly appointed United States Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao ordered the Federal Transit Administration to defer federal funding.

Commentary

Seriously, Mr. Denham?

You want to kill yet another chance to bring U.S. passenger rail into the 21st Century? Play a disingenuous game of smoke and mirrors by attempting to associate the object of your loathing to something else that has only little to do with it, and try to kill it as well.