Bay Area Awarded $160 Million for Key Transportation Projects
The California State Transportation Agency this week awarded $160 million to the Bay Area to support transformative transit and rail projects. The amount, representing 32 percent of the statewide total, comes from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. The funds are provided through the SB1 Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, and from Cap and Trade program proceeds.
The Bay Area grant funding will go to Muni, BART and WETA to ensure the full development of the BART Core Capacity investment in the Transbay crossing, allowing up to 30 trains per hour in each direction and an additional 200,000 passengers per day to use BART; provide for faster and more reliable journey times on Muni’s surface rail lines as part of the Muni Forward program; and invest in zero-emission ferry service to Mission Bay.
Under the leadership of CEO Jim Wunderman, the Bay Area Council has long advocated for the expansion of the water transit network as a solution to our region’s congestion problems and supported WETA’s application for CalSTA’s 2020 Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. Providing a critical extension of WETA’s San Francisco Bay Ferry service, the new clean ferry route will ease traffic on surface streets and bridges, reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.
Said Wunderman, who Gov. Newsom appointed Chair of WETA, “this grant award helps WETA achieve two of our key priorities: serve the jobs-rich Mission Bay neighborhood and move toward a zero-emission fleet. What a thrill it is to be able to achieve both goals with a single project.”
