Railway Gazette, 8/17:
California transport grants announced
USA: California State Transportation Agency announced on August 16 that it had selected 14 projects out of 41 applications to receive grants this year from its Transit & Intercity Capital Program. Totalling $390m, the grants are to be funded through eight auctions of greenhouse gas emission credits in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 financial years.
Of the 14 awards, 11 are for rail. The largest is an $82m grant to the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency towards the $350·3m ‘All Aboard: Transforming Southern California Rail Travel’ project. This includes extra rolling stock and infrastructure improvements to enable 20 min peak frequencies on San Diego’s Coaster corridor, as well as additional Metrolink services to Orange County and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner services between Los Angeles and San Diego. Two Talgo trainsets (a total of 31 cars) are to be leased for five years to operate between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, (emphasis added) offering reductions in journey times of 25 min.
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