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High-Speed Rail Stimulus Grants Announced

Posted by Eric ⋅ 28 January 2010 ⋅ 2 Comments

After almost a year of anticipation throughout the United States, the recipients of the discretionary high-speed rail stimulus grants have finally been announced, to time with President Obama’s State of the Union address. California has been especially excited by the opportunity to obtain much-needed federal money to add to the portfolio of funds that will … Continue reading →

OAC Judgment Day is Postponed, But Draws Near

Posted by Eric ⋅ 28 January 2010 ⋅ 6 Comments

Groundhog Day came a couple days early this year. Yesterday, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission faced yet another contentious meeting regarding the BART Oakland Airport Connector. And the Commission faced a remarkably similar question to that which it faced almost one year ago. This time, though, the stakes were higher. Last year, BART promised to MTC … Continue reading →

FTA Holds Back on BART OAC Funding

Posted by Eric ⋅ 21 January 2010 ⋅ 3 Comments

After months of disheartening news in 2009 in which agency after agency rubber-stamped BART’s ill-conceived Oakland Airport Connector project, it was welcome news to learn that the Federal Transit Administration decided to withhold $70 million of ARRA stimulus funding, which BART needs to build the OAC. This announcement comes just a few months after Public … Continue reading →

An Open Letter to the Green Governor

Posted by Eric ⋅ 11 January 2010 ⋅ 6 Comments

To Governor Schwarzenegger: It’s quite clearly the case, Green Governor, that we need to fix California’s transit systems, which are broke and breaking. Under-served areas had critical lifeline service put to the chopping block, but climate change demands that we reduce vehicle miles traveled statewide. Killing the gas sales tax and raising the excise tax … Continue reading →