Caltrain to get fed money for electrification

Stone said the $52 million would help electrification projects like the Caltrain Modernization Program, which will upgrade service reliability, including conversion to an electric fleet and station improvements.

Dan Lieberman, a spokesman for Caltrain and SamTrans, said the potential funding would be used to offset the losses from fare revenue and funding of essential operations. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission, or MTC, is the regional transportation planning agency responsible for allocating the money to local transit agencies. When MTC allocates the money, Caltrain and SamTrans will submit applications to the Federal Transit Administration and then draw upon the funds based on revenue losses and cost of operations, Lieberman said.

John Goodwin, assistant director of communications for MTC, said by email that MTC staff estimated $1.25 billion for the San Francisco-Oakland area based on Federal Transit Administration distribution formulas. It was too early to tell how it would be allocated across San Francisco-Oakland area transit agencies, but the distribution process would likely play out in the next three to four months. MTC estimated there would be around $1.67 billion total for the Bay Area’s 12 designated urban areas, Goodwin said. The American Rescue Plan includes $30.5 billion for public transit agencies across the country. The $30.5 billion will help with urbanized and rural area formula grants, transportation services grants for seniors and disabled people, bus services, planning grants and funds for capital improvement projects.

The transportation funding distributions are driven by Federal Transit Administration formulas and combinations of formulas involving revenue, hours of service and number of passengers. Goodwin said based on the previous funding distribution for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, bigger operators like San Francisco Municipal Rail, or Muni, and Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, will likely receive bigger distributions than relatively smaller agencies like Caltrain and SamTrans.

“The result is that the biggest recipients to date have been the biggest operators. I think that is a very reasonable expectation in how it will play out,” Goodwin said.

He said the first opportunity for specific funding details would be the April 14 meeting for the MTC Programming and Allocations Committee, which makes recommendations for spending state and federal transportation dollars. Once it starts to receive funding details April 14, the committee will later make recommendations to the MTC board for approval. Goodwin expects transit agencies to let MTC know about specific priorities and funding needs for the upcoming funding distribution. While it can be frustrating and difficult to divide funding among agencies, he noted the Bay Area transportation system has more needs than funding available.

Of the estimated $1.67 billion going to the Bay Area’s 12 designated urban areas, the San Francisco-Oakland area will have the largest funding help at $1.25 billion, with San Jose at an estimated $259 million, Concord $96 million, Santa Rosa $28 million, Antioch $26 million, Vallejo $7 million, Napa $4 million, Fairfield $3 million, Petaluma $2 million, Vacaville $800,000, Gilroy-Morgan Hill at $700,000 and Livermore at $500,000, Goodwin said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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