Transit turmoil in California: in the face of a perceived shift in gubernatorial transportation policy, major capital projects press on

Railway Age, June, 2007 by Julian Wolinsky

Mixed messages from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have left California Transit planners in something of a turmoil.

Schwarzenegger recently took an unannounced nighttime ride on the Sacramento light rail system's Gold Line. His spokesman said it was personal, something the governor had wanted to do since taking office. During the 20 minute trip, Schwarzenegger told a Regional Trait (RT) supervisor who accompanied him that LRVs reminded him of the trams he rode hi Austria as a child.

Transportation officials throughout California had hoped the outing would help convince Schwarzenegger to abandon his plan to divert $1.1 billion of state gasoline sales tax revenue from transit to other purposes, among them debt service on earlier transportation bonds. The proposed funding shift has outraged industry leaders, who were counting on $700 million of the gas tax money plus $4 billion from transportation bonds approved by voters last November under Proposition 1B to help fund, along with federal grants, a wide range of planned rail transit projects. The remainder of the gas tax diversion--$411 million--would decrease operating funds administered under California's State Transit Assistance Program, a 70% drop from last year. And instead of using Proposition 1B bond funds to supplement capital funds provided by the gas tax revenues, Schwarzenegger's proposal would use $600 million from Proposition 1B as a substitute. The fallout from the governor's plan would be pervasive, and new projects will suffer, advocates claim.

Schwarzenegger says his proposal would hurt only operating subsidies, and that he's actually increasing funding for transit capital projects. He argues that much of the revenue that would be redirected comes from excess gas tax money (so-called "spillover" funds) resulting from higher gas prices, and should not be counted on as a stable source of transit funding. He also says he supported Proposition 1B.

Financial shell games notwithstanding, the fuel tax will be an important revenue source for projects like RT's four-mile South Sacramento Corridor Phase 2 light rail extension, which is now undergoing environmental review. Once the Final EIS/EIR is certified, RT will proceed with final design and construction; revenue service is projected for 2010. Farther into the future is the 13-mile, 13-station LRT line from downtown to Natomas and Sacramento International Airport; a Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Report is now being prepared. But capital funding for both the college and airport projects could well hinge on revenue decisions by the governor and legislature. Separately, a 2.5-mile modern streetcar line has been proposed connecting West Sacramento to a transit center at the Amtrak station. Political support is strong but funding is not yet in place.

Down in the San Francisco Bay Area, several transit agencies have heaped their plates full of big capital projects. The Municipal Railway in April dedicated its new $648 million, 5.1-mile Muni Metro light rail extension to Sunnydale Avenue. The agency's next big project is the 1.7-mile, $1.4 billion Central Subway from the Third Street line along a heavily congested corridor to Chinatown. Also in the planning stage are two extensions of the heritage streetcar system, to Ft. Mason and to the Caltrain terminal.

Over at BART, work is getting under way on a $1.3 billion, 10-year Earthquake Safety Program to seismically strengthen stations, elevated guideways, and the Transbay Tube. Most of it will be financed by a voter-approved $980 million bond issue and, when completed, the retrofit will give BART's infrastructure a better chance of withstanding an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or greater. Two major expansions are also moving forward, the so-called e-BART fine in eastern Contra Costa County and an extension to downtown San Jose. E-BART would be a 21-mile, diesel-powered shuttle, possibly using DMUs. Running mostly at grade, it's seen as a less expensive, interim alternative to a full-fledged BART extension along the congested Highway 4 corridor. However, the price tag has been mounting rapidly--from $377 million in 2002 to $1.3 billion now--and with funding far from certain, completion of the first nine-mile phase to Antioch has been pushed back by three years to 2013.

The environmental process for BART's 5.4-mile, $678 million Warm Springs extension, which has been in the planning stage for 15 years, was completed last October. The track would run from the existing Fremont terminal south to a new station in the Warm Springs district and would constitute the first segment of the extension to San Jose. Most of the financing has been secured, and awarding of a design-build contract is envisioned during 2008. Revenue service would begin in 2013.

Continuing the line southward to Milpitas, San Jose, and Santa Clara will be the responsibility of Santa Clara County's Valley Transportation Authority (VIA), which will finance and manage construction of the 16-mile project. As currently envisioned, the price tag would be at least $4.7 billion, the high cost generated in part by four miles of subway beneath downtown San Jose. Although BART enjoys strong support from influential business leaders and many elected officials, lack of progress in providing the local funding share has stalled progress. Among the options being considered is a public-private partnership in which developers would pay for stations in exchange for tights to erect transit-oriented residential and commercial buildings. But VIA, which faces a deficit of $2.8 billion or more during the next 30 years, is hoping voters will approve a second half-percent sales tax for transportation. A similar levy was defeated in June 2006.