Legislators ask Biden and Senate for rail project funds before Trump assumes White House

In a last ditch effort, California state lawmakers are asking the Biden Administration and his secretary of transportation to send more dollars for rail projects out of concern that President-Elect Donald Trump will stop the state from receiving future transit grants.

A letter signed by key leaders of the 37-member California Latino Legislative Caucus and sent to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacoima, asks that the senator spread the word to the U.S. Senate, White House and Department of Transportation of the need for more federal dollars to pay for transit projects in Latino communities.

“We respectfully request that you promote and support the funding needed for public transit infrastructure and systems in California upon which Latino communities and working families are so highly dependent,” concluded the letter mailed to Padilla three weeks ago and obtained by this newspaper.

The letter was signed by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, chair of the Latino caucus; state Assemblymember Liz Ortega, D-San Leandro and Northern California’s vice chair of the Latino caucus; and state Assemblymember Juan Carrillo, D-Palmdale, vice chair of the Latino caucus in the Southern California region.

Padilla received the letter and said in an emailed response, “The unprecedented investment in American infrastructure over the last four years provides a unique opportunity to help build prosperity in communities that have too often been left behind. I look forward to working alongside partners like the California Latino Legislative Caucus to ensure we’re making smart investments that create good-paying jobs and improve access to reliable and affordable transit for communities that need it the most.”

Latinos in the state use public transit at a rate that is 12% higher than other groups, and the highest rate of public transit commuting is among the newest Latino immigrants at 24%, the Latino Caucus reported. In the Los Angeles region, there are about 4.7 million Latinos.

“The negative impacts of insufficient or incomplete/unfinished public transit systems are harmful both economically and culturally,” the legislators’ letter concluded.

The legislators are asking for President Joe Biden, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, to finish funding several projects, including the A Line (formerly the Gold Line) to Ontario International Airport; the Southeast Gateway Line from Union Station to Artesia; and the California High-Speed Rail project.

The letter also asks in general for more dollars for Metrolink heavy-rail passenger service serving six Southern California counties; Amtrak; and projects in the High Desert Corridor.

Alan Clayton — a former member of state and federal redistricting commissions who helped draw maps for lawmaker seats in the San Fernando Valley — worked with Tony Vasquez, a member of the California Board of Equalization and the Latino caucus to make a push for more transit funding before Biden’s term ends on Jan. 20.

“The problem is, there will be no more transportation money as of Jan. 20. When Trump takes over the money disappears because Trump will probably give to Arizona, Nevada or Texas — no more money will come to California,” Clayton said.

“The only shot we have is to get it through Buttigieg, and get the money out the door. And there is still time to do that,” Clayton said.

While no one know for sure how transit grants from the federal DOT will be awarded under a new administration, many transit experts, including Raffi Hamparian, LA Metro’s deputy executive officer for government relations, are concerned that a Republican-led Senate and a Trump secretary of transportation will not be friendly to California, a blue state which he did not carry in the presidential election.

The caucus letter points out that through the Biden/Harris administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the state received about $30 billion in federal infrastructure funding for roads, bridges, rail, public transit, airports and seaports.

The legislators want Biden and Buttigieg to finish the job before they leave Washington, DC.

“Some of these (projects) are still under construction in one or more of their phases, which necessitates additional funding,” the letter said.

One of the top funding priorities for federal dollars is LA Metro’s Southeast Gateway Line, which is estimated to cost between $7.1 billion and $9 billion to build.

The future 19-mile rail transit line, renamed from the West Santa Ana Branch to the Southeast Gateway Line, was approved on Jan. 27, 2022 by the LA Metro governing board and will take riders from Artesia to downtown Los Angeles, a first-of-its-kind transit project connecting Southeast Los Angeles cities to the city of Los Angeles.

The line’s first phase will include nine stations and will extend from the Slauson A Line station, located in the city of Los Angeles and Florence-Firestone unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, to its southern terminus at the Pioneer Station in the city of Artesia. It will pass through the cities of Bell, Bellflower, Cerritos, Cudahy, Downey, Florence-Firestone, Huntington Park, Los Angeles, Paramount, South Gate and Vernon. The line will also include a new C Line station at the I-105 freeway.

The second 4.5-mile phase will connect from Artesia through Little Tokyo into L.A.’s Union Station. This phase will take at least 10 more years before funding and right-of-way purchases are secured and design plans and construction are completed, most likely in 2044 or later, LA Metro reported in January 2024.

The area has a high projected population, as well as employment densities that are five times higher than L.A. County, with 44% of the population below the poverty line and 18% of households that do not own a car.

Metro reportedly has between $2.5 billion and $4.23 billion set aside for the project, most from Measure M, a half-cent sales tax measure for Metro capital projects.

Metro has said the project is first in line for federal dollars. The Federal Transit Administration in August said the first segment of the line was available for federal grants. The FTA is an agency within the U.S. DOT that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems.