High Speed Rail Funds Aiding Local Transit in CA

from Transportation Nation:



High Speed Rail Funds Aiding Local Transit in CA
By Julie Caine | 03/16/2012 – 9:30 am


California’s high-speed rail project has taken a beating over the past couple of months. The price tag for building the super fast train is now expected to be almost $100 billion, more than twice what voters approved in 2008. The High-Speed Rail Authority, which is designing and planning the project, has to convince voters – and an increasingly skeptical Legislature – that funding high-speed rail is feasible.

Dan Richards, the new head of the High-Speed Rail Authority, says that one way to bring down the cost of the train would be to speed up improvements to local transit systems along its path. In the Bay Area, some people are trying to make sure we see those improvements, even if the fast trains never come.

The new Transbay Terminal is a $4.2 billion project. By 2017, the upper level will be a modern transit hub for Muni and regional bus lines. The lower level will be a train station designed for high-speed rail and a newly-electrified Caltrain.

The terminal itself is fully funded by a combination of a federal loan and $400 million in stimulus money, but building the tracks that would actually get trains to the terminal is not. Right now, Caltrain tracks stop at 4th and King Streets in San Francisco, about a mile and a half from the station. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://transportationnation.org/2012/03/16/high-speed-funds-aiding-local-transit-in-ca/