California State Transportation Agency Awards Millions to San Francisco Projects

Last month, Governor Gavin Newson announced $690 million in competitive Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Project grants to support transportation projects across California. The Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program provides grants to fund transformative capital projects that will modernize California’s rail, bus, and ferry systems. Three of the projects that received award funding from the program will benefit San Francisco: 

• The Transbay Joint Powers Authority was awarded $60 million to advance the final design for the Downtown Rail Extension project, also known as “the Portal.” The project will extend Caltrain and future California High-Speed Rail service from the existing 4th and King railyard to the Salesforce Transit Center. The project will construct a new station at 4th and Townsend streets and bring rail service to the underground train station that was built as part of the construction of Salesforce Transit Center. The funding will position the project to advance in engineering work and meet the next federal funding milestone for the project later this year to the planned Federal Transit Administration New Starts grant.

• The Water Emergency Transportation Authority was awarded $13.8 million to strengthen regional transit connectivity by expanding electrical infrastructure to the Downtown San Francisco Ferry Terminal, the Alameda Main Street Ferry Terminal, and WETA’s Central Bay Maintenance Facility. This project will allow WETA to operate zero-emission, electric ferries on San Francisco Bay Ferry’s routes connecting Oakland and Alameda to San Francisco. Existing vessels will also be converted to zero-emission, electric operations and three new electric vessels will be purchased.

• The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority was awarded almost $11.3 million to support the Link21 Megaregional Rail Program effort, which is planning for the construction of a second underground train crossing of the San Francisco Bay. The project would enable riders access to destinations across Northern California, which includes the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento area, the Monterey Bay area, and the Northern San Joaquin Valley. 

See the full list of project awards here (PDF)

We thank the California State Transportation Agency for these awards which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve transit service.