Caltrans Awards $202 Million for Clean Transportation Projects, Including Funding for North Coast Communities
Press release from Caltrans:
Caltrans [yesterday] announced awarding $202 million to 143 local, clean transportation projects to prioritize public transit and electric vehicle options in California communities most affected by pollution. The projects are funded by California Climate Investment (CCI) through the Low Carbon Transit Operation Program (LCTOP) which has invested over $1.4 billion in carbon reduction projects over the past decade.
“Partnering with local transportation agencies, we’re building a thriving, more connected California by investing in projects that will improve outcomes for all roadway users and help the state achieve its ambitious climate goals,” said Caltrans Director Dina El-Tawansy. “These clean transportation projects will better serve communities most affected by air pollution, expand bus and rail service and support free or reduced fare programs and encourage fewer, shorter automobile trips.”
The CCI steers billions of Cap-and-Invest dollars towards strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities. It is designed to reduce greenhouse gases from the largest emission sources in California, drive innovation and guide the state towards a clean energy economy.
LCTOP has funded 1,548 projects to help local transit agencies launch new or expanded transit services, purchase zero-emission fleet vehicles, build zero-emission infrastructure, and make public transportation more affordable.
Some of the projects that will benefit from LCTOP funding include:
- Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority – Metro A-Line Operations: $48.7 million for Operations of Metro’s A Line light rail. The expanded transit service serves 44 stations and runs seven days a week.
- Lake Transit Authority – 2025 Bus Stop Enhancement Project: $173,000 for the purchase and installation of nine bus stop shelters, benches, and bike racks at locations in the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport and the unincorporated areas of Nice and Lucerne.
- County of Nevada – Nevada County Connects Low-Income Pass Fare Subsidy Program: $86,000 for a fare subsidy program designed to support and enhance mobility options for low-income persons.
- City of San Francisco – Free Muni for seniors, people with disabilities, and youth: $18 million to operate the Free Muni program that reduces or eliminates Muni fares for regular service for seniors, people with disabilities and youth.
- Golden Empire Transit District (GET) – Constructing a Smart Grid System for five Electric Vehicles: $1.5 million to build an off-grid, behind the meter, 250 KW “Smart Grid” system. This smart grid system is powered by solar electricity stored into three large batteries during daylight hours and deployed through EV chargers during their scheduled fueling hours at night. This grid will allow GET to charge the five new electric vehicles.
- San Diego Metropolitan Transit System – Battery Electric Bus Procurement: $8.5 million to procure up to 23, 40-foot battery electric buses to replace Compress Natural Gas Buses which will have reached the end of their lifespan.
A full list of projects can be found here.
For more information about California’s transportation investments, visit build.ca.gov.
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they should make an electric train form Rio dell to Trinidad.
No lines go to Trinidad. And the current GRT will never give up the trail for new rails. As it is there’s only one group around here that has any capacity to make that happen, and the take heat from everyone just for existing. People are quite hostile towards anything that rides on rails, but do an awful lot of complaining about the lack of transportation options that don’t reduce themselves to everyone riding a bike.
That’s not strictly true. The nature of railbanking, which is a federal process, is to preserve the right-of-way until such time as someone comes up with a practical, profitable railroad project. It has happened that rail trails have been converted back to railroads; not many, but it’s happened.
We’re not hostile, it’s just not practical here; not enough people, not enough money. Trains and trams are the most efficient means of moving freight and people, but we don’t have enough of either.
I’m well aware of what the process entails, but don’t sit and try to tell me that the end route of “railbanking” is not a quiet means of keeping a not-likely future of rail from happening. You know darn well that rail won’t come back on them, and many prefer it that way. I’ve sat in the meetings of both sides, spoken to a whole slew of people, done a lot of volunteer hours with both, and in other places beyond Humboldt. A not-small number of rail-only folks have been quite hostile towards a lot of good-faith efforts to include both on the same noodles of land. Don’t get me wrong, I use the new trail, and others, and support them, but there are more than a few who, deep down, hope rail never makes a comeback.
How would you propose paying for it? You’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars to build it, plus who knows how much every year to run it? Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see functional light rail here, but we just don’t have the population to support it, even with tourists.
We’d be much better served fine-tuning what we have to make it as efficient as is practical. And yes, that means more bikes, buses, and sidewalks, but I don’t see a downside to having fewer cars on the streets; those who don’t want to drive won’t have to, and those who do want to drive will have less crowded roads. Win/win.
Grants of course, its all someone else’s money as we don’t have any here
Whew, I was worried for a second there; I thought maybe Caltrans might have had to delay one of their $700 million freeway widening projects but no, it’s not their money.
HTA got some, a whopping $402,198:
You know what a good use for that money would have been? maybe fixing our roads…