SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[M II A II R II K]

Trump administration deals a big setback to Caltrain

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...o-10941880.php

.....

- In the first big hit to the Bay Area from the Trump administration, newly minted Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has put the brakes on $647 million for Caltrain to go electric — and in the process pretty much killed hopes for high-speed rail coming to San Francisco anytime soon.

- In a Jan. 24 letter to Chao, all 14 Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation called for the Caltrain money to be put on hold until a full audit is done on high-speed rail. On Friday, Chao obliged — the Federal Transit Administration, which she oversees, said a decision on the $647 million federal grant needed to keep the project going would be delayed.

- The delay doesn’t kill the project by itself. But officials of the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which runs Caltrain, say it all but derails electrification. That’s because Caltrain has already selected contractors for the electrification project. “We have a March 1 deadline to start issuing contracts,” Murphy said. After that, Caltrain will have to start the bidding process all over again.

.....

[ChargerCarl]

Just awful.

Say what you want about CAHSR, but Caltrain electrification is a worthy project.

[tech12]

Fuck trump and his criminal administration.

[northbay]

Originally Posted by tech12

Fuck trump and his criminal administration.

Ditto x1000

[viewguysf]

This is a well studied and planned "shovel ready" infrastructure project if there ever were one. I despise the hypocritical Republicans, especially the fourteen from California who were involved in this‼

[mt_climber13]

Enjoy your shiny new $3 billion greyhound bus station (yes, it will be a greyhound bus station for at least 4- 8 more years). After that time we will have self driving buses and uber electric cars that will reinvent transit infrastructure (perhaps even Elon Musk's hyperloop since he is working closely with the Trump administration) and HSR won't even matter.

[viewguysf]

Originally Posted by wakamesalad

Enjoy your shiny new $3 billion greyhound bus station (yes, it will be a greyhound bus station for at least 4- 8 more years). After that time we will have self driving buses and uber electric cars that will reinvent transit infrastructure (perhaps even Elon Musk's hyperloop since he is working closely with the Trump administration) and HSR won't even matter.

It's much more than a Greyhound station since there are numerous transit lines involved. In the meantime, it will be another jewel in San Francisco's crown as it awaits the future. It will also be a grand place to board and disembark those self driving busses.

Thinking a hyperloop or any other major system will be built during your timeframe is delusional.

[kgbnsf]

Originally Posted by wakamesalad

Enjoy your shiny new $3 billion greyhound bus station (yes, it will be a greyhound bus station for at least 4- 8 more years). After that time we will have self driving buses and uber electric cars that will reinvent transit infrastructure (perhaps even Elon Musk's hyperloop since he is working closely with the Trump administration) and HSR won't even matter.

The Transbay Terminal's primary users will be local bus lines from the regional area. AC Transit (Eastbay) makes over 500 trips each weekday into and out of downtown San Francisco alone, plus there are three lines running all day and on weekends, and an All Nighter line that operates during the late-night hours when BART is closed. Then factor in all the runs from Golden Gate Transit (Northbay) and Samtrans (Peninsula). High speed rail is just a drop in the proverbial bucket.

It will be a big win to get the transit companies all in the same terminal and someday, it will include HSR. Our infrastructure can't handle the demand today. It's either build more airports, freeways, or run a train line to LA.

[Pedestrian]

^^The loss of CalTrain commuter rail to the TransBay (because it can't get there through a tunnel unless it's electrified) is probably more important than HSR. But, yes, even if it's "just" a bus terminal, it will be a very busy one as anybody who uses the temporary version now in place knows.

I do hope--and I've heard nothing about it in years--that the tunnel originally envisioned to connect the lower level of the TransBay to the nearest BART station (Montgomery I think) a blcok or so away also gets done because BART is now in process of finally making it to downtown San Jose offering an alternative route to the South Bay to CalTrain. And since it will go to Diridon Station, it actually will provide a route around any CalTrain/HSR blockages on the Peninsula or in SF itself:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_San_Jose_station

[Pedestrian]

Originally Posted by tech12

Fuck trump and his criminal administration.

Actually, I doubt Trump or Elaine Chow, his Sec. of Tarnsportation who did this, yet know much about the situation and I have some hope that, given Trump's attitude toward "infrastructure" it may yet be reversed. This was a move brought about by the near universal opposition to HSR and anything that helps it move forward by the California Republican Congressional delegation who asked Sec. Chow to do it.

So your F-bomb really is probably mis-aimed, at least a bit.

[kgbnsf]

^^ I agree, the bigger loss is Caltrain to the new Transbay Terminal- all to spite high speed rail. To protest and prevent federal funds to come to our state by these CA republican leaders, is a loss for us all. They are putting politics above the state.

Some of the state funds that would normally go to these Republican congressional districts should be redirected to HSR until the difference is made up. Or, have them recant and request that these funds go through.

[Pedestrian]

Sign the petition to restore funding for CalTrain electrification: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...lectrification

[TWAK]

So Texas gets to have HSR in the administration's top infrastructure projects, and they bay area loses a commuter rail upgrade. Horrible. Time for California to stop providing food to the rest of the country.

[Pedestrian]

California’s top Republican ignored business plea to help Caltrain
By Matier & Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
February 22, 2017 Updated: February 22, 2017 6:00am

Business leaders at the Bay Area Council business group did their best at a recent fundraiser for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to persuade the Bakersfield Republican to get behind Caltrain electrification — but no dice.

McCarthy and the rest of the California GOP congressional delegation urged the Trump administration to delay a $647 million federal grant for the Caltrain upgrade as a way of targeting Gov. Jerry Brown’s high-speed rail project, which would ride Caltrain’s rails from the South Bay to San Francisco. Last week, the administration went along with the delay. Caltrain says that could doom it to a future of slow, inefficient diesel trains . . . .

“(McCarthy) said he supported electrification of Caltrain, but said the problem was that the $647 million was co-mingled with high-speed rail money and that the line would be used by high-speed rail,” said Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman . . . .

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...p?t=c6622821b1

[ChargerCarl]

You know, they do have a point about CAHSR. But this is the wrong way to go about it.

[Pedestrian]

^^What point?

Do you recall the battle in the 1990s about filling the Bay to create new runways for SFO because it was near capacity at the height of the "dot-com boom" in the Bay Area? Since then, we had 2 economic reversals (2000/2001 and 2008/2009) that have tamped down the issue, but SFO eventually will not be able to handle the traffic it needs to. Meanwhile, the secondary Bay Area airports in Oakland and San Jose have their own constraints and/or are pretty remote for many potential users (ironically, CalTrain might help make San Jose a better option for San Franciscans).

But at the same time as the Bay fill wars were being fought, it was said, and I assume it's still true, that half the flights from SFO went to southern CA, so HSR could take a lot of the pressure off overcrowding and make capacity available for flights going elsewhere. It will eventually be regarded as the most practical and efficient way to keep Bay Area air travel functioning.

But by then, thanks to Republican obduracy, building it will be more expensive and we won't have it online when we need it.

Thanks Mr. McCarthy.

[ChargerCarl]

The absurd cost of CAHSR, often driven by terrible routing choices.

This is what happens when pro-rail politicians fail to do anything about costs and efficiency.

[Pedestrian]

^^IMHO it costs what it costs and is worth it for a long list of reasons not just including the beauty of central city to central city speedy transportation making possible day trips between San Francisco and LA. Like I just said, it also could remove the necessity of environmentally damaging expansion of airports and it will help towns up and down the Central Valley access CA's major cities including their airports. Obviously, one could spend pages arguing the value of HSR but again, IMHO $60 or $80 or $100 billion to link CA together by rail is worth it, almost to the same degree that it was worth it for Abe Lincoln to push forward with transcontinental rail during the Civil War; something for which he now gets almost universal praise.

[ChargerCarl]

Whether or not its worth it in the end is besides the point, a $60 billion project is far more likely to be killed than a $30 billion one. By not caring about high unit costs you're actually HURTING the cause of quality rail transit.

[WrightCONCEPT]

Originally Posted by ChargerCarl

Whether or not its worth it in the end is besides the point, a $60 billion project is far more likely to be killed than a $30 billion one. By not caring about high unit costs you're actually HURTING the cause of quality rail transit.

Agreed