Transportation
What Trump wants: Trump pushes an “America’s Infrastructure First” policy that promises big investments in transportation but offers few details. The president-elect has spoken about the need to modernize rail systems and airports and repair crumbling highways. He said he wants to attract private investment to help pay for the work to avoid raising the federal deficit.
What California has: California has big needs. Highways need repairing, and rail systems, like Caltrain, need modernization along with airports and ports. It also needs to finish construction of the nation’s first high-speed rail system.
What could happen: A big test looms in March when Caltrain hopes to win a federal guarantee of $647 million in funding to electrify the commuter railroad that links San Francisco and Silicon Valley. “We’re going to find out quickly whether supporting a project in the San Francisco Bay Area is going to be something the Trump administration will do,” said John Goodwin, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, a regional transportation planning and financing agency. Although Trump is expected to try a private-industry partnership to fund transportation projects, those types of arrangements usually work for things like airports and ports, not mass transit and transportation systems. “Could you rebuild La Guardia airport with private investment? Probably,” said Randy Rentschler, an MTC spokesman. “Can you relieve congestion in the Bay Area? No. Can you help BART? No. Ferries? No.” What California needs, he said, is federal grants of public funds for public projects.