Newly minted Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has put the brakes on $647 million for Caltrain to go electric — and in the process pretty much killed hopes for high-speed rail coming to San Francisco anytime soon.…In a Jan. 24 letter to Chao, all 14 Republicans in the state’s congressional delegation called for the Caltrain money to be put on hold until a full audit is done on high-speed rail. On Friday, Chao obliged — the Federal Transit Administration, which she oversees, said a decision on the $647 million federal grant needed to keep the project going would be delayed.
In response, Brown is now rethinking his earlier, independent stance and is requesting that Trump administration release the monies to the state.
Gov. Jerry Brown has asked the Trump administration to reverse itself on a key decision to withhold a $647-million grant for a state passenger rail project, a request that comes two weeks after other California Democrats waded into the fray.….Obviously, what has happened is a huge curve ball,” said Jim Earp, a longtime supporter of the high-speed rail project and a member of the California Transportation Commission. “I hope calmer head prevail and the funding goes through.”It hasn’t helped the state’s case that there is not a single Republican in the Bay Area whose district might benefit from the grant.Chao’s decision in mid-February was sharply criticized by many of California’s Democrats, including Sen. Diane Feinstein and Sen. Kamala Harris. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said the Transportation Department was holding the project hostage in an effort to attack the bullet train. The Caltrain goes through her district.Their protests appeared to have had no effect, and whether they were even heard is unclear.In a handwritten note on the one-page letter that Brown sent this week, he wrote, “Can we discuss this on the phone?”Brown’s office declined to say why he asked for the phone call, as opposed to having his staff set up such a call with Chao.
They can put the $647 M toward making America great again instead of building a "train to and from nowhere".
ReplyDeleteAbout darn time more reasoned minds prevailed.
ReplyDeleteThese C02 scaredy cats all should be riding bicycles anyway
ReplyDeleteBack when the BRAC was formed every single branch of the military opted to shut down their installations in the San Francisco Bay area rather than try to keep them. This put the finger right in the eye of the HASC chairman (Dellums-D, Oakland) and Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein (mayor of san francisco and then senator from same place) and all the rest as they told the BRAC they'd be delighted to instantly shut down Alameda Naval Air Station and home port, Treasure Island Naval Station and home port and Vallejo Navy Shipyard and Moffet Naval Air Station, Onizuka AFB, Oakland Army Base home of Military Traffic Management Command, Oak Knoll Naval Hospital. I think they went a little to far when they discussed purging all the VA hospitals in the region but there went the Presidio and Sixth Army, Hamilton Air Force Base, Letterman Army Hospital....They killed them all to spite the California delegation and I don't see any love or affection for the same tools running the place today. At least Moonbeam offered to let us use Oakland after all the sh*theels at the Presidio, SF mayors office, National and California Parks office reneged on written agreements to let us use their areas for FBE-E.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to finally see that stupid pointless train die the true death. And then audit and prosecute the living hell out of every single person who touched the foul money stream for its creation.
Wiretap and publicize Brown's whining phone conversation to Chao.
ReplyDeletelove,soapweed