On Wednesday, 7/27 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance committee advanced the decision to allocate $20M for the last local contribution to fund Caltrain electrification, to allow the project to start moving forward.  The full board is scheduled to vote on the funding at the meeting on August 2nd starting at 2pm.
According to Caltrain and SFCTA, if the BOS do not vote to support the last piece of local funding, the electrification project will be delayed, since the multi-hundred-million dollar federal grant requires the local funding to be confirmed.
The same legislators already voted, in their role as the board of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, to approve the spending. The committee staff report said that San Francisco has $3.9M of the funding and could potentially use the new sales tax – which will go on the ballot in November – as a funding source if the tax passes.  Addressing concerns about a big, complex project, staff from San Francisco and regional agencies successfully negotiated oversight provisions over the project.
Do you want to see electrification move forward and not be delayed?  Send a note to the board of supervisors.  Thanks for those who sent a note already.
Can you speak at the BOS meeting on 8/2? Contact us at friends@friendsofcaltrain.com
Great news!