California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

2007-08 – 2017-18 California State Rail PlanOTHER PROPOSED ROUTESThe Department’s intercity rail program of new services shown in Figure 3Aincludes three route extensions/new routes: the Coast Route between San LuisObispo and San Francisco, Sacramento-Reno and Sacramento-Redding. Of these,only the Coast Route has been studied in detail. Amtrak’s 2001 CaliforniaPassenger Rail System 20-Year Improvement Plan describes a $550 millionprogram of capital improvements for the Route, including immediate andnear-term projects.CONSTRAINED CAPITAL PROGRAMThe Department has also developed a constrained capital program based on Statefunding levels reasonably anticipated to be available over the next ten years.This $700 million program is shown in Figure 2C. This program funding levelassumes:• $25 million a year in the State Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) or$250 million over the ten-year period.• $50 million in remaining Traffic Congestion Relief Program (TCRP)intercity rail project funding.• $400 million in Proposition 1B intercity rail fundsIt is difficult to project future available STIP funding for intercity rail, because somany variables are involved in projecting funding levels. $25 million in annualprojected STIP funding is a conservative estimate. The 1996 STIP provided$117 million in funding for intercity rail projects, while the 1998 STIP, asaugmented, provided an additional $181 million. The 2000 STIP provided$46 million, and the 2002 STIP increased funding by $106 million. No additionalfunds were made available in the 2004 STIP. The 2006 STIP and STIPAugmentation provide an additional $117 million over five years, for an averageannual amount of $23 million.The TCRP specified a list of projects to be funded, including over $200 million forspecific intercity rail capital projects. To date about $150 million in projects havebeen allocated. Thus the constrained program includes $50 million in unallocatedTCRP funds. Proposition 1B makes available $400 million for intercity railprojects. From the Proposition 1B total, the 2007-08 Budget Act appropriates$187 million for intercity rail projects. The remaining amount of $213 million isexpected to be appropriated in 2008-09.This program includes only State funds estimated to be spent on each route. Atthis time, it does not include estimates of non-state funds to be spent in theprogram. Specific projects are those that are programmed in the 2006 STIP andAugmentation and from the Proposition 1B Bond list and include track and26