Senator urges fight on Caltrain.

Feinstein asks Silicon Valley to argue Republicans on high-speed rail funding

SUNNYVALE — Irate about a threatened funding shortfall that could derail an extensive upgrade to one of the Bay Area’s most critical commuter corridors, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday exhorted a room filled with hundreds of Silicon Valley business leaders and elected officials to contact the 14 members of California’s GOP congressional delegation and tell them to stop blocking the electrification of Caltrain.

During a luncheon hosted by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group at Juniper Networks, an obviously frustrated Feinstein told the audience that the $2 billion Caltrain project — packaged and ready to go — “is the only funding grant agreement that has been denied a signature by the secretary of transportation — and it’s because of a letter that was written by 14 different Republicans,” most of them from the Central Valley, Feinstein said.

While much of the electrification is being paid for by local, regional and state funds, the 15-year-long effort to modernize the aging rail system suffered a major blow in February. That’s when federal transit officials decided to withhold $647 million that Caltrain was counting on to start the electrification work.

The decision by the Federal Transit Administration came just weeks after California’s GOP congressional delegation — led by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of Bakersfield — asked the Trump administration to block the funds to stop California’s controversial highspeed rail project.

Like most California Republican elected officials, McCarthy believes the bullet train is a boondoggle that will never be completed. So he and the other 13 California Republicans sent the letter to new U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, U.S. Senate Majority Mitch McConnell’s wife.

In the letter, the Republicans argued that the $647 million in federal money to help pay for electrifying Caltrain would essentially go to the California High-Speed Rail Authority because the authority has invested $700 million in Caltrain’s electrification project. So he asked Chao to delay it until an audit of the financing of the bullet train — which would run from San Francisco to Los Angeles — is completed.

The rail authority and Caltrain have agreed to share the same electrified tracks from San Jose to San Francisco — a cost-saving move.

“I just don’t understand his mentality,” Feinstein said of McCarthy. “This is such an important project, and it has one signature to get ... Never before has a full funding agreement been treated in this manner.”

Feinstein told the audience of about 400 that “we have our work cut out for us,” and she suggested that everyone present get a copy of the letter “and get in touch with those 14 Republicans .... And help us change their minds.”

In late March, more than 120 Silicon Valley business leaders fired off a letter to Trump and Chao, asking them to make good on federal promises for the allocation.

The Federal Transit Administration said it would make a final decision on the project once President Donald Trump releases his detailed budget for the 2018 fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1.

But Caltrain officials say even a short delay could have dire consequences for the electrification project, which had a March 1 funding deadline. Caltrain has since reached agreements with two contractors to extend the deadline to begin work to June 30.

Caltrain says replacing the line’s diesel trains with cleaner electric ones would allow the agency to run longer and more frequent trains and boost daily ridership from 65,000 to 110,000 by 2040.

And supporters of the project say it also will achieve one of Trump’s major initiatives: creation of jobs. Caltrain has estimated the project would create 9,600 jobs in the Bay Area and throughout the country.

Without the electrification project, Bay Area leaders say, congestion on Bay Area roads will continue to increase. And Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, worries about the economic impact a major delay would have on the companies located along the Caltrain corridor. Those companies, he said, generate 14 percent of the state’s GDP.

Matt Mahood, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Organization, formerly the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, told the town hall that Bay Area leaders “have to say on message that Silicon Valley’s economy is a driver for not just the state of California, but for the rest of the country, and that we are worthy of investment from the federal government to help keep our economic engine humming.”

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, said “this project was tailor made for the funding programs in the Department of Transportation. It’s 9,000 American jobs; it’s infrastructure; it’s reducing CO2 by 97 percent along the corridor . ... These are stunning numbers.”

She said the project represents the promise of infrastructure — what Trump talked about on the campaign trail. “But it has become the victim of power politics,” Speier said.

Feinstein’s hourlong talk — from transportation to housing to H-1B visas — also addressed the possibility of a second San Francisco Bay crossing for BART, possibly from San Francisco Airport to Oakland Airport.

In 1979, Feinstein said, she didn’t expect such explosive growth and now regrets voting against a similar project.

“And so the great learning experience for me in my work is that it’s not only the immediate thing — it’s the legacy we leave behind,” said the 83-year-old senator, who on Friday insisted to reporters that she still doesn’t know whether she will run for re-election next year. “It’s what we do today that matters 15, 20, 25 years from now that makes a difference and leaves a legacy.”