(The following article by Erik N. Nelson was posted on the Inside Bay Area website on April 28.)
SAN FRANCISCO — To spark stalled efforts to electrify Caltrain, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission on Wednesday threatened to strip $41 million in regional funding if the systems three counties cant cover a $91 million funding shortfall by 2007.
If all were going to do is talk about this project, you can do it 10 years from now, MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger warned commissioners from San Francisco who succeeded in putting off a the ultimatums deadline until Dec. 1, 2007. We have seen through bitter experience that with big-ticket projects, delay and time is the enemy.
The $471 million project, estimated for completion by 2014, would make trains faster and quicker to accelerate, quieter and less polluting than the diesel locomotives that now pull the train.
In addition, it would permit the extension of the line to San Franciscos Transbay Terminal, where passengers could switch to BART and Muni rail service as well as buses and ferries connecting with the rest of the Bay Area.
Most of the transit systems in the rest of the country are electrified, said Commissioner Sue Lempert, who represents San Mateo County Cities.
Lempert challenged commissioners from San Francisco, mayoral appointee and chairman Jon Rubin and city and county representative Tom Ammiano, to put their money where their mouth is when it came to funding the electrification project.
The commissioners all agreed, however, to loosen the MTCs financing requirements so that none of the three counties running Caltrain, Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco, would be bound by a third-third-third funding requirement and put off the MTC staffs recommended July 1, 2007, deadline for closing the $91 million budget hole.
Certainly setting a deadline and giving more flexibility seems like it could help, said Michael Graff, president of the BayRail Alliance, a rail transit advocacy group. Its always been a little bit tricky, because youve got three independent counties working to run the rail line and fund the rail line.
In Lemperts words, It takes two to tango. Getting three to tango is almost impossible. Lempert added that Santa Clara and San Mateo are on board with sales tax money committed to electrify the line.
The problem for San Francisco is that it is on the hook for nearly all of the $91 million, and the new flexibility might allow the other counties to pick up some of the slack.