SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ — Mayor Edwin M. Lee today made the following statement as the California High-Speed Rail Authority approves and signs the MOU for Caltrain electrification, an early investment in high-speed rail in California:
“High-speed rail will revolutionize how Californians travel, commute and move around the State. We can no longer simply add more highways, infrastructure and airport runways to ease congestion.
The Northern California MOU signed today charts a course for electrification of the Caltrain corridor between San Jose and San Francisco and the extension of the corridor to the new Transbay Transit Center. Caltrain electrification invests in a transit spine that connects the cities of San Jose and San Francisco to Silicon Valley and the Peninsula corridor and supports the continued health of a critical jobs engine in the Bay Area.
Thank you to the leadership of Governor Jerry Brown for producing a plan for the future of our State that is better, faster and cheaper, while also making meaningful early investments given the current State budget challenges and creating jobs in the process.
San Francisco is the ‘Innovation Capital of the World,’ and we stand ready to embrace the innovation of high speed rail. San Franciscans will celebrate the day when the first high-speed rail train pulls into the ‘Grand Central Station of the West’ at Transbay Transit Center.”
