We wanted to highlight three transportation infrastructure initiatives pending in Sacramento as we head into summer – Senate bill SB-X1-1 (Beall), Assembly bill AB- 1591 (Frasier), and some extensive language proposed by the Governor’s office that is not currently included in proposed legislation.
When CSLRA met in Sacramento in April, we had the opportunity to meet with Senator Beall for 45 minutes and much of the discussion was about his transportation bill. Senator Beall has asked the CSLRA if we could provide him with a list of freight rail infrastructure projects that if funded through his bill would benefit short lines within CA.
We are now asking CSLRA member short lines and holding companies for some basic information on any projects they can identify that seem suitable for funding. Since the transportation infrastructure initiative language currently in play mentions grade crossing improvements and trade corridor improvements, projects that fit those labels would be particularly useful. Anything that improves the efficiency or capacity of a freight rail route, such as increasing clearances to handle double stacks, more or longer passing sidings, signalization upgrades, etc. would be good. Projects that could be started soon after funding was provided and which provide incremental efficiency/capacity improvements without costing huge dollars are especially desirable.
If you can identify any projects for the list to be shared with Senator Beall, please provide the following basic information on each one: project name, project location, short project description, and approximate project cost. This information is requested by June 17th in support of a possible follow-on meeting between CSLRA and Senator Beall.
Please forward your potential projects to calshortlinerailassoc@gmail.com
Sincerely,