MTC awards funding to modernise Bay Area transit systems

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.