Mountain View Voice, February 16, 2019
Mark Noack • “Caltrain officials said that funding remains secure for a $2 billion project to upgrade the rail line to an electrified system. The state’s high-speed rail project is obligated to provide $713 million toward the cost of the upgrades.
“That funding remains intact, and the state recently awarded an additional $165 million to the project to purchase electric trains, said Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman.
“Mountain View Councilman John McAlister, who sits on the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) board of directors, expressed confidence that the recent setback for high-speed rail would not curtail the city’s plan to separate the local train crossings. Those projects include a $60 million plan to close off Castro Street to road traffic and a $120 million project to tunnel Rengstorff Avenue under the train tracks.
“Those expensive infrastructure projects already have funding secured, primarily from the 2016 Santa Clara County Measure B sales tax, which allocated $750 million toward grade-separation efforts, McAlister said.” Read more here.