Federal Transit Administration has put the brakes on a $647 million grant to help pay for electrification of a commuter train system on the San Francisco Peninsula that was considered a key part of extending California’s planned high-speed rail line to the Bay Area.
The federal agency’s move to defer a decision on the grant agreement that had been reached with the Obama administration comes weeks after Republicans in California’s congressional delegation asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to pull the plug on the grant.
The deferral stands to considerably delay plans to convert Caltrain tracks between San Francisco and San Jose from diesel-fueled trains to an all-electric system — and throws a kink into long-term plans by the California High-Speed Rail Authority to have its bullet-trains share improved and electrified Caltrain tracks starting in the mid-2020s.
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