The agency will strike a $790 million FFGA, along with a $629 million TIFIA loan to complete the Federal Way line light rail extension.
Must finalize a FFGA before its can access the first $200M of the $1.17 billion grant.
The bill is projected to bring about $2.37 billion to help complete the 20-mile rail by extending the half-percent excise tax surcharge on Oahu for another three years, although the mayor of Honolulu would like it extended to five years.
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.
The funding is the first installment of a potential $1.174 billion FFGA for the project, which in 2023 will extend light rail service from Northgate to Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood, Wash.
The project is ready to start construction, and the final step is approval of the federal grant.
Budget cuts are achieved by zeroing out federal support for Amtrak’s long-distance train services, limiting federal funding for the FTA’s Capital Investment Program to projects with an existing FFGA, and eliminating funding for the TIGER discretionary grant program.
The President's budget also recommends that Section 2 -- a 2.6-mile extension of the subway receive a Full Funding Grant Agreement which, if granted, would serve as the commitment to provide federal matching funds for this portion of the subway.
Sacramento Regional Transit’s South Line Light Rail Expansion project includes four stations and will extend the Blue Line an additional 4.3 miles. It is expected to generate 2,210 new transit trips and nearly 2,000 hours of user benefit on an average weekday.
The FTA will take approximately 30 days to review it before forwarding the request to the Office of Management and Budget at the White House for its own 30-day review.