The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) intends to sign the San Carlos Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project (Caltrain) Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) in preparation for releasing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 funds appropriated in the recently enacted 2017 Consolidated Omnibus Appropriations Bill.

In the Omnibus Bill enacted on May 5, $1.460 billion was appropriated for New Start projects with fully signed FFGAs, $285 million was appropriated for New Start projects anticipated to advance to signed FFGAs, as well as $100 million for signed Core Capacity projects and $232.85 million for new Core Capacity projects. Of the new Core Capacity projects not yet under FFGAs, $100 million was appropriated for Caltrain. In addition, $408 million was appropriated for Small Starts projects.

With the Caltrain project having met all of the statutory requirements, the FTA intends to sign the FFGA and intends to allocate the FY 2017 Congressionally appropriated funds to the project in its upcoming apportionments notice. As with all signed FFGAs, additional funding amounts specified in the agreement are subject to the Congressional Appropriations process during future years. The FTA notified the Caltrain project sponsors today.  

The FTA’s Capital Investment Grant Program is the nation’s primary grant program for funding major transit capital investments. Projects accepted into the highly competitive program must go through a multi-year, multi-step process outlined in legislative requirements in order to receive program funds.