Millbrae, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. will join local, state and national transportation, business and government leaders on Friday in Millbrae at a ceremony to commemorate the start of the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project, which will convert Caltrain service from diesel equipment to high-performance electric trains.
“This shovel-ready project will help expand service on an already congested corridor, improve air quality and put thousands of people to work,” said Governor Brown in May following the Federal Transit Administration's approval of the project's Full Funding Grant Agreement. “Secretary Chao did the right thing on Caltrain. This is not only good for California, it’s good for America.”
The administration lobbied the U.S. Department of Transportation, White House and Congress extensively on Caltrain electrification project funding and in March, Governor Brown met with both Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy in Washington, D.C. to push for the approval of the grant agreement. Administration officials also held numerous meetings with local leaders, business groups and members of the California Congressional delegation. Additionally, Governor Brown penned two letters to Secretary Chao on the project: one in February ahead of his March meeting and another in May. The Caltrain Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project is among the key infrastructure projects submitted to the federal government in February.
The project is expected to reduce freeway congestion and travel times for the 65,000 weekday commuters, improve regional air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
