Californias other transit boondoggle laid bare as costs double: Ill be retiring by then

The Golden State has more than one transit “boondoggle” to wrestle with.Another blighted project seeking to connect the Bay Area with the San Joaquin Valley — the Valley Link Rail Project — has seen millions of dollars poured in since 2018, with absolutely nothing to show for it.The transit project was supposed to relieve traffic congestion in the area and provide commuters with traffic-free transport through areas like Altamont Pass, but it hasn’t left the planning stages in the 8 years since it was proposed.Estimated costs for the project have ballooned from a $2 billion price tag to $4.4 billion, further delaying construction.

Kevin Sheridan, Valley Link Rail Authority’s executive director, told the East Bay Times that the large costs have forced them to divide the project into two phases with the second phase potentially running from Vasco Road to a new Mountain House station.A big reason for the project’s sluggish pace is money.“At the highest level, money is a big piece of it,” Sebastian Petty, a senior transportation policy advisor for SPUR, told the East Bay Times.Officials have secured $800 million in funding for the project, but they still need a lot more.The project requires about $2 billion more in local, state and federal funds to start construction.

That amount still wouldn’t be enough to make it to the planned Mountain House station located in western San Joaquin County.“All of those processes take time, securing that money takes time,” Petty said.He says transit projects like Valley Link require several sources of funding from the local and state level to prove its financially viable.There’s more competition for the funding than there is the capacity to give it, Petty mentioned.“In a broad sense, there is greater demand for funding than there is capacity,” Petty said.

“What makes things slow down, stall out – none of these projects have a full tank of gas.They kind of have to increment things together to be able ...