RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The planned passenger rail service between Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley is receiving a boost in federal funding.
In a July 28 press release, Congressman Ken Calvert announced that $5 million (of the $23.8 million secured for district transportation projects) — as part of the federal Fiscal Year 2024 Transportation/HUD Appropriations bill — will go to Coachella. The funds will go towards the current Tier 2 environmental study, estimated to cost $60 million. Riverside County Transportation Commission Chair and Lake Elsinore City Councilmember Robert “Bob” Magee, confirms that $40 million in state funding has currently been raised.
Plans for the new service were approved in 2022 with an estimated cost of up to $1 billion for the project [See “Plan for rail service to Southern California’s Coachella Valley moves forward,” News Wire. July 19, 2022].
According to the Urbanize Los Angeles, the 144-mile corridor would see two daily round trips while using an existing Metrolink line and stations in Fullerton and Riverside, before traversing the Union Pacific Railroad’s Yuma Subdivision. Significant upgrades to the section will include a third main line and a new bridge at the Santa Ana River.
The Urbanize also reports five new station locations being explored with the cities of Indio and Coachella already confirmed. The Palm Springs station, currently used by Amtrak’s Sunset Limited, will also be added.
Construction could begin within 10 years of the environmental study’s completion.
What a boondoggle!!! $60M for an EA? Outrageous. And construction not to begin for 10 years after the EA is approved? Well, maybe the first train will run in 20 years or so.
Ken Calvert, a great example of a legislator that puffs out his chest when funding he voted against lands in his district anyway.
Fiscal conservatives, I can appreciate. Politicians who always want to have it both ways, not so much.