State Assembly and Senate Return with Transportation Funding Proposals
     O n December 5th, both State Senator Jim Beall and State Assembly Member Jim Frazier reintroduced their transportation funding proposals in their respective houses of the State Legislature.  Both proposals strive to tackle the estimated $59 billion maintenance backlog on California’s freeway system and $78 billion shortfall for local roads, highways and bridges.  
     Senator Beall, Chair of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing, introduced SB 1 (Beall) which is a proposed $6 billion, ten year investment in California’s transportation system that would invest in goods movements, transit, intercity rail, and in maintenance of both local and state transportation infrastructure.  
     Assembly Member Jim Frazier, Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, introduced AB 1 that is also a $6 billion per year investment in California’s underfunded local and state transportation infrastructure.  His proposal also targets funding for goods movement, transit, active transportation, with a split between state and local infrastructure investment, and lowering the local voter threshold to 55%.
     Both proposals have been reduced from the $7 billion proposals introduced last session and include a number of positive proposals that would benefit Solano County’s underfunded transportation system.  The Governor is also developing his updated transportation funding proposal that is scheduled to be unveiled at his State of the State Address on January 10, 2017.  It is anticipated that this would be increased from the $3 billion proposal from last session to $4 billion narrowing the gap between the administration proposal and the two proposals from the State Legislature.
December 2016 
STATUS Newsletter Reintroduced
     Welcome to the first edition of the renewed STATUS Newsletter.  Our intent is to publish this news every month after the STA Board meeting to inform the public and our stakeholders of what’s happening in the transportation arena in Solano County.  Please  sign up here  to receive this newsletter directly in your inbox . 
December 2016 Topics:
  • STATUS Newsletter Debut
  • State Transportation Funding
  • Departing Board Members 
  • STA Clean Audit
  • Federal Transportation Secretary
  • OBAG 2 Funding Requests
  • SR 37 Corridor Update
  • Draft CTP Transit and Rideshare Element Released
  • Solano Coordinated Short Range Transit Plan Adopted  
  • Solano Community College Student Transportation Fee 
  • Capitol Corridor Celebrates 25th
  • SolanoExpress Rt 80 for Ferry Service to Vallejo        
  • 25th Anniversary Edition STA Annual Report    
  • Solano Mobility Stats
Departing STA Board Members 
     Two STA Board Members, Dixon Mayor Jack Batchelor and Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis are scheduled to depart the Board this month.  Both have been active and effective members of the STA Board, representing their respective communities and STA in Sacramento and Washington, DC.  Two new Board Members are scheduled to join the STA Board in January 2017.
STA Receives Clean Audit for FY 2015-2016
     For the eleventh consecutive year, the STA received an unqualified audit issued by an independent auditor without any findings of its Fiscal Year 2015-16 budget.  This fiscal and administrative requirement is sufficient to ensure that STA funds are used in compliance with all applicable Federal statutory and regulatory provisions, and costs were reasonable and necessary for operating its programs. 
President Elect Trump Selects New Federal Transportation Secretary
     Last week, President elect Donald Trump announced Elaine Chao as his choice for federal Transportation Secretary.  She previously served as the Department of Labor Secretary for the recent Bush Administration and Deputy Transportation Secretary for the first Bush Administration.  
     Following up on President elect Trump’s comments identifying the importance of investing in America’s transportation infrastructure, the “Coalition for America’s Gateways and Trade Corridors”, forwarded a letter to President elect Donald Trump identifying seven proposed actions for implementation.  This national coalition is made of 57 public and private members, including the Port of Oakland and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), focused on expanding the nation’s freight movement capacity.  Solano County has two high profile freight projects that STA has gotten shelf ready for construction, Phase 2 of the I-80/I-680/SR 12 Interchange and the I-80 Westbound Truck Scales.  Both would be quality candidates for future federal freight funding.
OBAG 2 Funding Requests Significantly Exceed Funding
     In September 2016, the STA Board approved an updated set of 16 criteria for evaluating  OneBayArea Grants 2  (OBAG 2) project submittals and issued a call for projects for $4.6 million in federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds.  On November 18, 2017, STA received 13 applications from project sponsors requesting a total of $17.4 million in OBAG 2 CMAQ funding, a 4 to 1 ratio of project requests exceeding the available funding.  STA staff will present preliminary projects scores at the STA Board meeting on January 11th and plan to recommend a list of projects at the February STA Board meeting.   
SR 37 Corridor Update
     Earlier this year, the STA Board authorized the STA to partner through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the transportation authorities from Marin, Napa and Sonoma to evaluate options for addressing future sea level rise and growing traffic on the State Route 37 corridor .  The four North Bay County Transportation Authorities retained a consultant to evaluate different options for financing improvements to the SR 37 Corridor that include public/private options and the potential for tolling the corridor.  The work is scheduled to be concluded in March 2017.  
     Subsequently, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has stepped forward to help the four North Bay Counties to fund an initial corridor analysis of the entire SR 37 Corridor, to evaluate options and identify a design alternative for the initial phased improvements to the SR 37 Corridor.  This effort is scheduled to begin in January 2017 and conclude before the end of 2017.
STA Releases Draft CTP Transit and Rideshare Element for Public Comment
     STA has released for public comment the draft  Transit and Rideshare Element  of the Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP), the second of three CTP elements.  Comments are due by December 21st.  This element is scheduled for action by the STA Board at its January 11th meeting.  The remaining CTP element that will be brought forward to the STA Board in 2017 is the Arterials, Freeways and Highways Element. 
Adoption of 2nd Solano County Coordinated Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP)
      STA staff and consultants have wrapped up work with Solano County’s five transit operators to complete the 2015-16 Solano County Coordinated Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP).  The five local SRTPs have already been adopted by the local transit operators’ governing boards and the final step was STA Board adoption of the final document at the December 14th Board meeting.
Solano Community College Student Transportation Fee
      STA has assisted Solano Community College (SCC) for the past 2 years in developing a student transportation fee.  This year, the SCC students overwhelming approved (76%) increasing their students fees to include transportation.  This will provide each SCC student the opportunity to purchase transit passes for SolanoExpress or local service from Fairfield & Suisun Transit (FAST) and Solano County Transit (SolTrans), or local service from Vacaville City Coach for half price.
Capitol Corridor Celebrates 25th Anniversary
     This month the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority’s (CCJPA) celebrated its 25th Anniversary.  The CCJPA continues to improve and expand its intercity passenger rail service with 15 daily trains (from 3 daily trains in 1991) with the #1 on-time performance record in the Amtrak system, a farebox ratio over 50%, and annual ridership that has increased from 200,000 prior to the formation of the JPA to over 1.5 million this past year.  Solano County stations include Suisun-Fairfield, with an additional planned station stop at Fairfield/Vacaville beginning in late 2017.  Watch the Capitol Corridor’s 25th Anniversary Video .
STA and SolTrans Propose SolanoExpress Route 80 Modification to Complement WETA’s Proposed Expanded Ferry Service to Vallejo
       Solano Transportation Authority (STA) was invited to participate in coordination meetings with the San Francisco Bay Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) and Solano County Transit (SolTrans) regarding the San Francisco Bay Ferry Service that serves San Francisco and Vallejo.  WETA proposed adding additional ferry service runs that would add three additional ferry trips from Vallejo to San Francisco and three additional trips from San Francisco to Vallejo.  With additional ferry trips, WETA is hoping to replace the five Route 200 bus runs from Vallejo to San Francisco and seven Route 200 bus runs from San Francisco to Vallejo. The Route 200 has historically provided a backup service to the ferry and in recent years has filled service gaps between, Vallejo and San Francisco, when the ferry service is provided during the day.
     However, based on public input from ferry and Route 200 riders, the top two comments received were support for the expansion of ferry service, as well as, the request to continue to operate a late evening bus service.  SolTrans, STA, and WETA realized that by modifying one of the late evening SolanoExpress Route 80 buses to extend the route in the late evening from El Cerrito Del Norte BART to San Francisco and then back to Vallejo would fulfill the needs of riders.  At the December 15, 2016 SolTrans Board Meeting, the SolTrans Board approved a new service for the trip leaving Vallejo at 9:30PM and then returning from San Francisco at 10:30PM, and will call this new service Route 82.  For more information, please visit the websites of San Francisco Bay Ferry and SolTrans.
25th Anniversary Edition STA Annual Report
     STA celebrated its 25th year as a joint powers authority last year (a partnership of the cities of Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville and Vallejo and the County of Solano).  Highlights from the past 25 years and an overview of 2015 transportation accomplishments can be viewed online.  The STA website has a pdf for onscreen viewing, as well as a printable pdf.
2016 STA Board Members
  • Norman Richardson, Chair, Mayor of Rio Vista
  • Jim Spering, Vice Chair, Solano County Supervisor
  • Elizabeth Patterson, Mayor of Benicia
  • Jack Batchelor, Jr., Mayor of Dixon
  • Harry Price, Mayor of Fairfield
  • Pete Sanchez, Mayor of Suisun City
  • Len Augustine, Mayor of Vacaville
  • Osby Davis, Mayor of Vallejo

       STA website: http://www.sta.ca.gov
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