[Pedestrian]

^^

California’s top Republican ignored business plea to help Caltrain
By Matier & Ross, San Francisco Chronicle
February 22, 2017 Updated: February 22, 2017 6:00am

Business leaders at the Bay Area Council business group did their best at a recent fundraiser for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to persuade the Bakersfield Republican to get behind Caltrain electrification — but no dice.

McCarthy and the rest of the California GOP congressional delegation urged the Trump administration to delay a $647 million federal grant for the Caltrain upgrade as a way of targeting Gov. Jerry Brown’s high-speed rail project, which would ride Caltrain’s rails from the South Bay to San Francisco. Last week, the administration went along with the delay. Caltrain says that could doom it to a future of slow, inefficient diesel trains . . . .

“(McCarthy) said he supported electrification of Caltrain, but said the problem was that the $647 million was co-mingled with high-speed rail money and that the line would be used by high-speed rail,” said Bay Area Council President Jim Wunderman . . . .

Wunderman said the business group is still holding out hope that President Trump will include the Caltrain money in his upcoming budget . . . .

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/a...p?t=c6622821b1