MTC awards funding to modernise Bay Area transit systems

San Francisco’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has allocated US$494 million to help more than 20 Bay Area transit agencies replace or rehabilitate aging buses, ferries, rail cars, tracks and bridges; update safety, control and communications systems; install new fare-collection equipment; maintain services for elderly and disabled passengers; and make other capital improvements. The commitment includes US$447 million of federal transportation funds, supplemented by US$47 million of revenues fr
January 28, 2016 Read time: 2 mins

San Francisco’s 343 Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has allocated US$494 million to help more than 20 Bay Area transit agencies replace or rehabilitate aging buses, ferries, rail cars, tracks and bridges; update safety, control and communications systems; install new fare-collection equipment; maintain services for elderly and disabled passengers; and make other capital improvements. The commitment includes US$447 million of federal transportation funds, supplemented by US$47 million of revenues from the Bay Area's seven state-owned toll bridges.

"Job one for the Commission is what we call 'Fix it First’, which means taking care of the transportation system we already have," explained MTC chair and Santa Clara County supervisor Dave Cortese. "We're also committed to putting federal transportation dollars to work right away. With last month's passage by Congress of the new FAST Act, we finally have some certainty about the level of federal funding coming to the region for the next several years. This allowed us not only to take a big programming action for transit capital priorities in the current fiscal year, but also to begin committing to transit capital investments in upcoming years.”

Among the biggest investments made possible by the new funding are roughly US$50 million for 7357 BART's rail car replacement program; US$17 million to update deteriorating segments of the BART railway; US$97 million to accelerate San Francisco Muni's replacement of dozens of buses and trolley coaches; $36 million for 274 AC Transit to buy 10 new double-deck buses and replace more than 30 of its older 40- and 60-foot buses; and nearly US$17 million to replace two aging San Francisco Bay Ferry vessels. The allocation also reserves about US$52 million for Caltrain's planned replacement of diesel-powered trains with electric vehicles as part of its system electrification and positive train control initiatives.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Hartford’s tailors winter maintenance on Esri’s GIS platform
    August 5, 2016
    The in-house winter maintenance and vehicle tracking system built by the Public Works Department in Hartford, Connecticut, coped with record snowfalls and cut costs too. When it comes to dealing with the effects of mother nature, transport agencies can find themselves in a lose-lose situation: criticised if the roads or rail lines are disrupted by snow, ice or floods for more than a few hours and lambasted for wasting money if the equipment and stockpiles put in place for a hard winter remain unused.
    Read More
  • EU supports key TEN-T infrastructure projects
    July 31, 2014
    In the last Calls of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) Programme, the European Commission selected a total of 106 projects that will benefit from over US$428 million in EU support for improving transport infrastructure across Europe. The 52 projects selected from the 2013 Multi-Annual Call and 54 from the 2013 Annual Call will use the EU’s financial support to bring forward the completion of the TEN-T network as well as studying innovative ways of reducing the transport sector’s carbon footprint.
    Read More
  • Close shave for Brazilian project
    June 12, 2015
    Signing the order to equip a new control room just 45 days before the city hosts a major sporting event is challenging - but some deadlines just cannot be moved. There is nothing like a deadline to concentrate minds and effort as Mitsubishi and the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte discovered in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup. Although municipal authorities had been considering a new command centre for years, it was the hosting of the World Cup last summer that provided the final impetus.
    Read More
  • New York to start congestion charging 'from January 2025'
    November 15, 2024
    Final approval for delayed scheme still required as $15 toll lowered to $9
    Read More

Highlighted Content