April 29, 2025 • 28 mins
Transit advocates are watching with concern as several high-profile transit projects across America face uncertain futures under the Trump administration, from New York's congestion pricing to California's high-speed rail.
• NYC's congestion pricing has shown remarkable early success with 70% fewer honking complaints, 50% fewer traffic injuries, and increased transit ridership
• The MTA's $500 million annual revenue from congestion pricing funds critical improvements to accessibility, bus frequency, and subway infrastructure
• California High-Speed Rail construction continues despite funding threats, with $14 billion already invested and 15,000 jobs created
• San Antonio's Green Line BRT project would deliver vital 10-15 minute frequency service along a 12-mile corridor in America's largest city without rail
• Virginia's railway expansion includes crucial bottleneck improvements to the Long Bridge, which operates at 95% capacity
• Austin's highway cap project faces uncertainty with rising costs reaching $1.4 billion while the underlying I-35 expansion proceeds unimpeded
• Projects across the country face delays and funding challenges as previously awarded grants undergo review
Share your thoughts on which transit projects in your area might be at risk and which projects you think should be prioritized! We'd love to hear from you in the comments.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Doors are closing Public transit.
That's my way to roll On themetro.
I'm taking control.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind.
Transit is the rhythm of mylife.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today we're digging into the transit projects now
facing an uncertain future underthe Trump administration, from
high-speed rail to criticalinfrastructure updates.
We break it down on thisepisode of Transit Tangents.
Hey everybody, and welcome backto this episode of Transit
Tangents.
My name is Chris and I'm Lewis,and today we are getting into
(00:42):
what we are labeling as the topfive transit projects or
programs that are at risk underthe current Trump administration
.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, and I mean there are way more than this
five.
We just kind of picked fivethat we thought were interesting
.
So, as you're watching, if youhave some that you think should
have made the list, definitelylet us know down below.
But yeah, these are going to bekind of interesting to go
through.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yep, and we want to reiterate we're probably going
to say this a couple of times ina couple of episodes.
We did this in the last episode.
We realize things are prettyawful right now with the Trump
administration and there's a lotof scary things going on.
We know that this is not theworst of the things that are out
there.
You know there's detentions andall this other stuff happening,
but again, we're trying not tobe overly political here, so we
(01:26):
are going to keep it to atransit transportation focus.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, with that, let's jump into number one on
our list, which is a topic we'vediscussed quite a few times on
the show so far.
But it's been a while, so Ithink it's good to revisit it
which is the MTA congestionpricing, as well as some general
funding potential issues thatare arising.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's jump into the new issuefirst.
So there's been a fight nowwith the Trump administration
over funding for MTA and thethreatening to remove federal
funding from the nation'slargest transit agency.
Over safety concerns on thesubway.
There were a couple of highprofile safety incidents
incidents people being pushed infront of a train and being
(02:06):
attacked, things that, whilenobody supports them, nobody
wants them to happen, thingsthat also just happen in these
types of spaces in the unitedstates and in the united states
yeah, I mean these thingsgenerally.
They they happen and there mayhave been a small uptick during
um sort of the covid like justafter post-COVID years.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I also think that a lot of it is just being overly
visualized now, absolutelyBecause we're I mean, everyone
has a phone in their pocket,obviously, and is recording this
stuff, but a lot ofconservatives right now are
trying to take any opportunitythey can to highlight issues in
cities in general.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yep cities in general .
Yep, um.
But the uh, sean duffy, the,the our least favorite
transportation secretary so far,has picked up this fight with
the mta and they are trying toaddress these safety concerns.
And they set a deadline, butfor march 31st, which has passed
, by the way, but they set adeadline by march 31st for the
mta to come up with acomprehensive plan to tackle
(03:02):
issues such as assaults onpassengers and transit workers,
fare evasion and dangerousactivities like subway surfing.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So I mean, what's crazy with this?
And like they've done this withNew York but other places as
well, and like these agencies dohave, like these agencies don't
want their systems to be havingcrimes happen in them.
Of course, new York has steppedup significantly over the last
few years, adding, you know, andthere are different strategies
(03:32):
you can use here.
You can criticize the differentstrategies, but there are
police at most subway stationsnow, like all the time they're
riding the trains.
Mta has their own kind of folkswho are out monitoring and
doing this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They've added 15,000 cameras to the system, right, so
you're always being watched.
The MTA was really good aboutpointing out in their response
to the Department ofTransportation that there's been
a 40% reduction in crime withinthe MTA system, and that's 40%
reduction from pre-COVID levels.
Right?
So not even like you know,there's a little bit of the
(04:05):
COVID spike, but now we're 40%below the pre-COVID level Right.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This has also been happening quite a bit and I
really appreciate his response,which is why I'm calling it out
in Washington DC for the WMATAsystem.
The CEO of the WMATA system,randy Clark, is so good PR-wise
he's good at operating a transitsystem, but also PR-wise is
just really doing a good jobhere.
He actually met with Sean Duffyyesterday from when we were
(04:30):
recording this.
So he met with Sean Duffy onApril 17th to discuss the WMATA
system, and security was one ofthe options there, and their CEO
was really smart in pointingout listen, crime has been going
down every year in the systemfor the last seven years.
We're currently at a seven-yearlow for crime in the WMATA
system.
(04:51):
Things are all trending in theright direction.
So you know, while crime ingeneral is bad of course, no
one's saying crime is good theseagencies are doing what they
can to try to tackle it.
Is there room for improvement?
Of course, but there's alwaysroom for improvement and these
agencies are doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And should you be threatening billions in funding?
No.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Especially when it impacts like they pretend as we
kind of transition intocongestion pricing here.
They pretend to care about theworking class folks and whatnot
and helping them get around.
Cutting money from the MTA willhurt working class folks.
Working class folks who live inNew York City do not drive cars
, they ride the subway period.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It is unique in the country for that and that should
be part of the consideration ofthe administration, but it
doesn't seem to be.
But transitioning into theother side of the MTA topic is
the congestion pricing.
It is a model of tolling allvehicles going into lower
Manhattan, so any part ofManhattan that is south of 60th
Street or if you're enteringthrough the bridges and tunnels,
(05:54):
there is a usage charge fordriving on those streets.
This took off in January ofthis year and has had really
good results Totally.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I'm quoting here from a New York Magazine graphic.
Here, in the first 100 days ofcongestion pricing, complaints
about honking dropped 70%.
Rush hour delays at the HollandTunnel dropped 65% and travel
time through it fell 48%.
The number of cars enteringlower Manhattan fell by 6
million compared to a yearearlier.
Traffic-related injuries in thecongestion zone dropped by half
(06:26):
.
Metro North ridership rose 8%and importantly and this was a
lot of Doomer content about NewYork saying congestion pricing
was going to hurt businessesvisitor counts in business
improvement districts increasedby 1.5 million year over year.
So Manhattan's doing fine, yes,and on every metric is doing
better.
And I like add on top of thisthe other benefits here you've
(06:48):
got, you know, improved airquality, the safety stuff, I
mean the number of of trafficrelated injuries in the
congestion zone dropping by half.
That's amazing and like thissays traffic related injuries,
that in a lot of cases meanspedestrians and people on bikes
getting hit by cars.
Dropping, yes, dropping.
So I mean this is havingamazing effects, both
economically reducing trafficfor the folks who still do want
(07:10):
to drive in you have fasterdrive times and it's also adding
more funding to the MTA, whichI saw the MTA announce literally
today that they're increasingbus services on a whole wide
variety of lines to improve busservice so that people are
waiting less because of therevenue they're generating from
congestion processing Yep andthis revenue is on track to
(07:30):
generate around $500 million bythe end of this year.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That revenue then gets invested back into
improving the tracks and safetyand timing of the trains and bus
service as you said,accessibility.
Accessibility.
If you've been to New York, howmany of the uh elevators are
broken down, like they neverwork, so you know you're lucky
if the station even has anelevator.
Yeah, exactly so you have allthis money going into the
accessibility side of it andlike all these improvements.
But the trump administrationdoesn't like the congestion
(07:56):
pricing.
They have claimed that it hurtsworking class.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
New yorkers because every working class new yorker
lives in lower manhattan anddrives their own car and they
can afford to park a car inlower Manhattan and drive in and
out.
They totally don't take thesubway.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, and a lot of New Yorkers support this program
.
Trump administration does not,and they have set multiple
deadlines for the city to endcongestion pricing.
Those deadlines have come andpassed.
They've been extended.
The head of the MTA has saiddon't worry about the deadlines,
we will continue operatingcongestion pricing.
Even Kathy Hochul has said thecameras are going to stay on,
the tolling is going to stay on.
She's met with Trump twice totell him to drop it.
(08:33):
So we'll see what happens Atthe moment it's still going
Through, at least.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think there's like a court date in October is kind
of what's next.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So we'll kind of keep an eye on this one, yeah,
moving into our number two onthe list is the California
High-Speed Rail.
Now we've done a whole episodeabout High-Speed Rail.
We talked a lot aboutCalifornia, so take a look at
that episode.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We do owe it its own episode.
In general, I think CaliforniaHigh-Speed Rail should get its
own episode yeah absolutely, butjust a little bit of a recap.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
California high-speed rail was first approved in 2008
with the goal of connecting SanFrancisco to Los Angeles with a
bullet train that would takeyou less than three hours to get
between the two cities.
It has experienced years ofdelays.
Costs have gone up.
It was initially planned to bebuilt for.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There's a clip that's been going around from Gavin
Newsom where he was lookingreally young with no gray hairs
or anything.
I forget what year it is and hewas saying that they'd be
riding on it by like 2020, I'mpretty sure, but it's gone
through a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Costs have skyrocketed.
We know this.
It's a very difficult terrainto build through.
There's all of these reasonswhy.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Lawsuits over environmental concerns.
The EIS statements for this, toput together the environmental
impact statements for them, wereimmense.
When you're covering this muchground, especially going through
more environmentally sensitiveareas and whatnot.
It's been just the definitionof like over bureaucratized I
(10:07):
don't know new word for you.
It's been a lot.
It's been a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
New words brought to you by Lewis.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So fast forward to this era.
Trump is now in his crosshairsand this isn't the first time.
They canceled about a billiondollars in federal funding
during his first term.
That was reinstated during theBiden term and now things have
escalated in this new term.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, so the administration has formally
launched a review of theprojects targeting $4 billion in
federal funding.
Sean Duffy actually went toCalifornia and had a press
conference about this, where hewas shouted at by protesters for
a lot of it.
We'll insert a little clip ofthat right here, and you know
(10:51):
what You're going to have peoplewho love fraud, who love waste,
who love trains to nowhere.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All of us up here.
We do not love fraud, waste andabuse.
His quote from the pressconference we're not going to
shovel taxpayer money into abottomless pit of bureaucratic
mismanagement.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, no, it's.
I mean to pretend that it hasbeen managed well, though I mean
I do.
There has definitely been somemismanagement, don't get me
wrong.
But, like at, you want to cutthe funding for it.
Now, right, like it's, it's,you know they're, it's being
built.
Like to say that there's notracks being laid, there's no
progress, is incorrect.
The project is making forwardprogress.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It also still has popular approval in California.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, which is what matters.
They are footing the majorityof the bill for this.
It's definitely interesting.
I do know that they recentlyappointed a new CEO to
California High Speed Rail andthat is a sign of like.
Okay, they're actively tryingto improve.
(11:59):
They know that there is roomfor improvement.
But um, to try to kill thisproject while it's very well
underway there, there it.
Unlike Texas central, which wetalked about in a previous
episode, this one is more thanshovel ready.
It is literally.
There are shovels in the ground, there are tracks being laid,
there are bridges being built.
To stop it now makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yep, Right now they're focusing on the 171 mile
segment between Merced andBakersfield, hopefully opening
by 2033.
They've spent $14 billion.
10.5 of that has come from thestate of California.
They need about $7 billion moreto keep construction on track.
It creates 15,000 jobs.
They've built 50 majorstructures for this.
(12:38):
Like you said, it is going soto threaten to remove funding
now, yeah, it's just.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It's really frustrating to see that,
absolutely.
So we'll kind of keep folksposted on that as well.
I don't know what to say aboutthat one.
I'd like to say that I'moptimistic.
They're going to figure it.
Well.
I don't know what to say aboutthat one.
I'd like to say that I'moptimistic.
They're going to figure it out.
I think that they might need tofigure it out without more
federal funding, and I don'tknow.
I mean, if any state has theresources to do that, it's
(13:07):
probably California.
I think there's some lawsuitspotentially getting involved
here too.
So I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, we'll keep you posted.
We will do a California HighSpeed episode in the near future
.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We're going to jump right back into this episode in
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Speaker 2 (13:38):
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Speaker 1 (13:45):
The third project on our list is fairly close to home
for us.
The city we've been to in ourSan Antonio using only public
transit episode is the SanAntonio Green Line BRT project.
Now this one is literallyalready being constructed and it
is a 12-mile BRT line that willconnect from the San Antonio
(14:05):
Airport in the north throughdowntown and to a transit center
down in the south.
It will actually include alittle over four miles of actual
dedicated center running BRTlanes that are kind of separated
.
You're going to have off board,fair, off board, fair off board
fair.
You're going to have an offboard fair collection, a lot of
(14:27):
things that you'd like to see ina BRT system to kind of keep
them moving.
If you are interested in a coolBRT project that is just now
open actually I'm just thinkingabout this we did an episode on
it a few weeks back theMinneapolis BRT Minneapolis-St
Paul kind of BRT stuff going on.
You can go check that out.
The Gold Line, thank you.
Also, with this project in SanAntonio you'll have frequencies
(14:49):
of every 10 to 15 minutes, which, for transit here in Texas, is
pretty gold standard, andthey're adding 26 bus stations
across the city, which is a hugeaddition.
Absolutely and unfortunately,this is another project with
some federal funds that arebeing tied up at the moment.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, as you said, some of the construction's
already started.
They started moving utilitiesin 2024, and now they were
expecting to break ground inearly 2025, with operations
starting in August of 2027.
Right In total, the entireproject was estimated at $446
million, which is a lot but notcrazy numbers when we talk about
(15:29):
transit projects.
Right Right Via the agency inSan Antonio, they secured a $268
million grant from the federalgovernment to help this project
along.
It was the largest federalinvestment in Via in their
history.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And for those of you not familiar with San Antonio,
there is no rail system at all.
It is only buses.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Largest city in the US without rail.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, they have a ton of buses and they actually ran
pretty well in our experiencewhen we were there, at least
inside of the first highway ring, from what we were talking with
folks about.
The further out you get,unsurprisingly the worse the
service generally gets.
So investing in real BRT likethis is a huge step for San
Antonio.
In reading more about this, itseems like some of the reasons
(16:16):
that the money is being flaggedis literally it's being caught
up in some of the DEI type stuff.
Right now A lot of grants fortransit projects do kind of
include that sort of language,because it was a major focus,
especially under the Bidenadministration, making sure the
money is being spent equitablyand all of this sort of stuff.
So included in all of thesegrant proposals for the most
(16:38):
part is all of that language.
So this might not be the onlyand I mean we'll talk more about
a few more later but this mightnot be the only project that's
going to be caught up in that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Also really frustrating because I mean, what
is transit?
I mean transit has a lot of DEIfocus.
You are connecting usuallyhistorically disenfranchised
parts of cities to the main partof this.
You know, the main core peoplewho generally use transit are
those who may not have a car andwhether that's for income
reasons or personal choice, youknow you, you have to be able to
serve all of the communityright and provide equity to all
(17:07):
of the community.
So of course, if they are doingtheir search bar you know right
investigations into the grantthen they're going to find this.
What's also the mostfrustrating about this is that
this grant was already awarded.
Disbursements should behappening.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right, and that is an important point to that.
It was already allocated, theyalready went through their
approval process and now they'retrying to claw the money back,
which not a great look.
Uh, making you know, kind oflike.
Why would anyone trust thefederal government about
anything If money that thefederal government allocates,
the federal government actuallythen later goes oh, actually I
(17:45):
don't know about that and thentries to pull it back to your
point too.
On the like, especially in acity like San Antonio, there are
very few people who areintentionally wanting to take
transit there because SanAntonio is such a car centric
place.
We did meet with one of thosegroups there, strongtown, san
Antonio, who is doing a lot ofwork.
There are some folks in thatgroup who are psyched about
(18:08):
using an e-bike and using viawhen need be and choose to live
car free.
But the vast majority of folksriding the bus in San Antonio
it's not by choice, it's becauseyou know they either can't
afford a car, they can't drive acar, whatever their reason may
be.
So, yeah, it's so important,especially in a city like that.
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So number four on our list is the Virginia Railway
expansion.
This is sort of a collection ofprojects in the Virginia area,
mostly centered aroundWashington DC.
But the TRB program is aneffort to enhance passenger and
freight rail capacity along theI-95 corridor.
(18:48):
Now this project has again it'skind of a lot of projects that
are in the works.
You have the long bridgeexpansion, which is one of the
primary rail bridges over thepotomac.
It goes right into washingtondc.
We've ridden it.
When we did our dc in a day.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, some of the wmata train lines when
connecting to reagan airport umalso to other destinations
throughout virginia.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So yeah, absolutely.
It passes literally rightbeside the jefferson memorial,
so you have a lot of trafficgoing through here.
It's also one of the vitaltransportation links in the
region and at its peak operationit's hitting like 95% capacity.
So they're on the brink ofbeing over capacity on this and
it's going to really create moreof a bottleneck.
(19:30):
So that is a huge criticalinfrastructure project that
needs to get done.
Neck so that is a huge criticalinfrastructure project that
needs to get done.
You also have the.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I always say this poorly with the L'Enfant station
improvement.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So this is one of the stations in the DC area but
it's one of the busiest VREstations and they need to
increase the service there.
And then also third trackadditions in multiple counties,
including Prince WilliamStadford and Spotsylvania
counties to improve theirreliability and service.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And in December 2023, the VPRA, the Virginia
Passenger Rail Authority,secured a $729 million federal
grant, and this is currentlywhat is up in the air right now.
So this is not a small amountof money and it's affecting
several different projects here,as you outlined Again.
I mean, when you've got theserail bridges at 95% 97% capacity
(20:22):
in our nation's capital also.
Basically, it feels like theseare the sort of investments that
should definitely be being madeand it's just yet another thing
kind of caught up in thecurrent chaos surrounding all of
caught up in the current chaossurrounding all of these
projects in the Trumpadministration.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, and you know you can have advocates who are
against things like passengerrail, whatever.
We have these arguments all thetime.
But this is also impactingfreight rail, right?
So this isn't just aboutpassenger rail, it's about total
rail connectivity in thisregion.
So these grants, you know theydo more than just support.
You know the liberal mobilityutopia, yes.
(20:58):
So with all this up in the air,virginia, with a couple other,
they're working with a coupleother government agencies to try
to find additional funding thatcan be used for these projects
and to get them done.
They're also looking at otherfunding mechanisms.
So this is again one that we'llkind of keep an eye on and see
if anything else comes up in theworks.
(21:20):
But I would call that LongBridge double tracking, that
Long Bridge expansion,definitely be in my top five
critical transportation projectsthat the Trump administration
is currently threatening Totally.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And this last one doesn't feel as exactly like a
public transit project, but itis a different type of transit
project and we wanted to includeit because it's something we've
talked about in the past before.
So this is the highway cap andstitch funding in the city of
Austin, here where we live, butthis is also affecting other
(21:53):
cities as well.
Who received money with thereconnecting communities grant?
The city of Austin was awarded$105 million from the federal
government last year for thisproject, which would go towards
the CAP project in downtownAustin.
There are a few CAPs beingadded on I-35.
We've talked about I-35 in thepast.
(22:14):
They're currently expanding itthrough downtown Austin, adding
basically three additional lanesin each direction.
Uh, making the scar through thecity even wider.
Funny, there's no threat tothat project.
There's no, no threat to thatproject so far they've already.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
They've already bulldozed half of the buildings
they were going to tear down andthey're about to start
demolishing the upper decks ontheir highway.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
It's a little sad to see some of the yeah, I mean a
lot of stuff is is yeah, it'sgoing to be an ugly couple years
in austin while that projectgoes underway amongst other
projects going on in the city atthe same time.
But anyway, the $105 million isbeing spent for the Cesar
Chavez to kind of 4th Streethighway cap area.
The city has plans to do somesort of park on top of it.
(22:58):
They're kind of still dialingin exactly what would go there.
Yep, um, and if it's actuallyeven going to happen.
There was initially we did anepisode about highway caps.
Uh, it was supposed to be votedon in december and then tech
stock got delayed so it gotpushed back to march.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, and then with this it's now pushed back even
further it's pushed back to may,I think, and so, uh, it just
keeps getting.
You know, the football keepsgetting kicked down the field,
but, um, we'll see what happens.
I wasn't expecting a footballreference from you.
Sorry, continue.
I grew up in the South.
One of the reasons why thiskeeps getting kicked down the
(23:34):
road is that the project hasballooned to about $1.4 billion.
A lot of that is cost increase,just post-COVID cost increase.
The city of Austin.
They have to come up with a $45million match to actually
accept the grant money from thefederal government, so there's a
lot up in the air with this.
We want to see this projecthappen.
(23:55):
We want to see things like theReconnecting Communities Grant,
things like the NeighborhoodAccess and Equity Grant Program.
We want to see these thingssucceed, because there are areas
of the country that were justcompletely demolished and
divided by highways and this isa great opportunity to reconnect
those neighborhoods.
Also, it's a great opportunityto take what would typically be
(24:18):
a dead space in your city andcreate a vibrant you know, plaza
, playground, city market,whatever on top of it, and we've
seen great examples of thisacross the country.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like.
I think it's important to notehere too.
Like I do, I have some qualmsin general.
I mean, we've talked about thisfurther at length in our caps
and stitches episode and if youwant to have an interesting
conversation about caps andstitches, you should talk to
Cutter from our previous episodeearlier this year.
He and I have had some verylengthy discussions about it and
they won me over on some of it,but I still think that the
(24:50):
downtown caps should happen.
But $1.4 billion or something todo caps all the way up north of
downtown that starts to feellike a lot of money that the
city probably could allocatebetter elsewhere.
The only other qualm I havewith this is that, like, this is
a reconnecting communitiesgrant that is literally being
used to essentially support ahighway widening project, not a,
(25:13):
not, not something that is likereally mending wounds and
whatnot.
It's like, sure, we'll have acap for a few blocks here, but
like, like we're going to have awider highway through the rest
of the city.
So I have my fair share ofqualms with them.
I do think that a downtownhighway cap would be a major
improvement in Austin.
I'm less sold compared to youon some of the more northern
(25:34):
ones, but you can go back to ourprevious episode if you want to
learn more about that kind ofelement to this.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So we'll continue to keep an eye on this, so we'll
keep you informed.
But those are our sort of topfive, sort of transit
initiatives or transportationprojects that we think are sort
of at risk with the currentadministration.
There's other notable mentionsin there.
We had the Texas Central, whichwe did in a previous episode.
We also we should probably talkabout this in a future episode,
(26:02):
but Trump administration takingover the revitalization of the
Penn Station in New York.
A lot of interesting stuffthere, so take a look at it
Totally.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And I mean some of these.
You know the Penn Station thing, like I think you had said
before, it's like Kathy Hochulcame out and was like great,
that's less funding burden onthe MTA to kind of make this
happen.
So some of these could end upbeing okay.
I also have to mention ourlocal project here, Project
Connect.
At this stage in 2026 is whenthey would have been really
(26:34):
submitting their finalapplication, for I believe the
New Starts program, which wouldrequire half of Project Connect
essentially would be coming fromfederal funding.
I'm pretty I don't want to be adowner but like I'm pretty
skeptical that that's going tohappen, especially when you look
at like all of thedocumentation that ATP has put
(26:55):
together has been, you know,following what the New Starts
program is asking for, whichincludes a whole bunch of like
DEI related content.
Like I mean there's sectionsabout like equity and race and
income and like why you know howthis is.
All of that stuff's gonna getflagged.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I say you just take the Word document and you
control and replace all mentionsof equity with corporate
investment.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
But yeah, I do think that they need to reframe a lot
and there's still some time todo this, but I'm still pretty
nervous about it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, we'll see.
Like I said, we'll keep youinformed, posted on what is
happening with Project Connectand other things, as the Trump
administration continues on withsome of these grant freezes.
But that is our list of the topfive, plus some honorable
mentions there or notablementions maybe not honorable.
If you have your own list,please share those in the
(27:47):
comments.
Let us know what you thinkabout this list, if you have any
opinions about the freezes onthese grants or the risks to
these programs.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, we'd love to hear what you have to say, and
if you haven't liked this videoalready, please consider doing
so.
It helps us out quite a bitAlso.
Just subscribing is a big thing.
Send so it helps us out quite abit Also.
Just subscribing is a big thing.
Send it to your friends,whatever it may be, but without
further ado thank you all.
So much for watching and enjoythe rest of your Transit.
Tangents Tuesday.
Doors are closing Public transit.
That's my way to roll On themetro.
I'm taking control.
Bus stops, train tracks it's mydaily grind.
Transit is the rhythm of mylife.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Today we're digging into the transit projects now
facing an uncertain future underthe Trump administration, from
high-speed rail to criticalinfrastructure updates.
We break it down on thisepisode of Transit Tangents.
Hey everybody, and welcome backto this episode of Transit
Tangents.
My name is Chris and I'm Lewis,and today we are getting into
(00:42):
what we are labeling as the topfive transit projects or
programs that are at risk underthe current Trump administration
.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Yeah, and I mean there are way more than this
five.
We just kind of picked fivethat we thought were interesting
.
So, as you're watching, if youhave some that you think should
have made the list, definitelylet us know down below.
But yeah, these are going to bekind of interesting to go
through.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Yep, and we want to reiterate we're probably going
to say this a couple of times ina couple of episodes.
We did this in the last episode.
We realize things are prettyawful right now with the Trump
administration and there's a lotof scary things going on.
We know that this is not theworst of the things that are out
there.
You know there's detentions andall this other stuff happening,
but again, we're trying not tobe overly political here, so we
(01:26):
are going to keep it to atransit transportation focus.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah, with that, let's jump into number one on
our list, which is a topic we'vediscussed quite a few times on
the show so far.
But it's been a while, so Ithink it's good to revisit it
which is the MTA congestionpricing, as well as some general
funding potential issues thatare arising.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's jump into the new issuefirst.
So there's been a fight nowwith the Trump administration
over funding for MTA and thethreatening to remove federal
funding from the nation'slargest transit agency.
Over safety concerns on thesubway.
There were a couple of highprofile safety incidents
incidents people being pushed infront of a train and being
(02:06):
attacked, things that, whilenobody supports them, nobody
wants them to happen, thingsthat also just happen in these
types of spaces in the unitedstates and in the united states
yeah, I mean these thingsgenerally.
They they happen and there mayhave been a small uptick during
um sort of the covid like justafter post-COVID years.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I also think that a lot of it is just being overly
visualized now, absolutelyBecause we're I mean, everyone
has a phone in their pocket,obviously, and is recording this
stuff, but a lot ofconservatives right now are
trying to take any opportunitythey can to highlight issues in
cities in general.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yep cities in general .
Yep, um.
But the uh, sean duffy, the,the our least favorite
transportation secretary so far,has picked up this fight with
the mta and they are trying toaddress these safety concerns.
And they set a deadline, butfor march 31st, which has passed
, by the way, but they set adeadline by march 31st for the
mta to come up with acomprehensive plan to tackle
(03:02):
issues such as assaults onpassengers and transit workers,
fare evasion and dangerousactivities like subway surfing.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So I mean, what's crazy with this?
And like they've done this withNew York but other places as
well, and like these agencies dohave, like these agencies don't
want their systems to be havingcrimes happen in them.
Of course, new York has steppedup significantly over the last
few years, adding, you know, andthere are different strategies
(03:32):
you can use here.
You can criticize the differentstrategies, but there are
police at most subway stationsnow, like all the time they're
riding the trains.
Mta has their own kind of folkswho are out monitoring and
doing this sort of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
They've added 15,000 cameras to the system, right, so
you're always being watched.
The MTA was really good aboutpointing out in their response
to the Department ofTransportation that there's been
a 40% reduction in crime withinthe MTA system, and that's 40%
reduction from pre-COVID levels.
Right?
So not even like you know,there's a little bit of the
(04:05):
COVID spike, but now we're 40%below the pre-COVID level Right.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
This has also been happening quite a bit and I
really appreciate his response,which is why I'm calling it out
in Washington DC for the WMATAsystem.
The CEO of the WMATA system,randy Clark, is so good PR-wise
he's good at operating a transitsystem, but also PR-wise is
just really doing a good jobhere.
He actually met with Sean Duffyyesterday from when we were
(04:30):
recording this.
So he met with Sean Duffy onApril 17th to discuss the WMATA
system, and security was one ofthe options there, and their CEO
was really smart in pointingout listen, crime has been going
down every year in the systemfor the last seven years.
We're currently at a seven-yearlow for crime in the WMATA
system.
(04:51):
Things are all trending in theright direction.
So you know, while crime ingeneral is bad of course, no
one's saying crime is good theseagencies are doing what they
can to try to tackle it.
Is there room for improvement?
Of course, but there's alwaysroom for improvement and these
agencies are doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
And should you be threatening billions in funding?
No.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Especially when it impacts like they pretend as we
kind of transition intocongestion pricing here.
They pretend to care about theworking class folks and whatnot
and helping them get around.
Cutting money from the MTA willhurt working class folks.
Working class folks who live inNew York City do not drive cars
, they ride the subway period.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
It is unique in the country for that and that should
be part of the consideration ofthe administration, but it
doesn't seem to be.
But transitioning into theother side of the MTA topic is
the congestion pricing.
It is a model of tolling allvehicles going into lower
Manhattan, so any part ofManhattan that is south of 60th
Street or if you're enteringthrough the bridges and tunnels,
(05:54):
there is a usage charge fordriving on those streets.
This took off in January ofthis year and has had really
good results Totally.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I'm quoting here from a New York Magazine graphic.
Here, in the first 100 days ofcongestion pricing, complaints
about honking dropped 70%.
Rush hour delays at the HollandTunnel dropped 65% and travel
time through it fell 48%.
The number of cars enteringlower Manhattan fell by 6
million compared to a yearearlier.
Traffic-related injuries in thecongestion zone dropped by half
(06:26):
.
Metro North ridership rose 8%and importantly and this was a
lot of Doomer content about NewYork saying congestion pricing
was going to hurt businessesvisitor counts in business
improvement districts increasedby 1.5 million year over year.
So Manhattan's doing fine, yes,and on every metric is doing
better.
And I like add on top of thisthe other benefits here you've
(06:48):
got, you know, improved airquality, the safety stuff, I
mean the number of of trafficrelated injuries in the
congestion zone dropping by half.
That's amazing and like thissays traffic related injuries,
that in a lot of cases meanspedestrians and people on bikes
getting hit by cars.
Dropping, yes, dropping.
So I mean this is havingamazing effects, both
economically reducing trafficfor the folks who still do want
(07:10):
to drive in you have fasterdrive times and it's also adding
more funding to the MTA, whichI saw the MTA announce literally
today that they're increasingbus services on a whole wide
variety of lines to improve busservice so that people are
waiting less because of therevenue they're generating from
congestion processing Yep andthis revenue is on track to
(07:30):
generate around $500 million bythe end of this year.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
That revenue then gets invested back into
improving the tracks and safetyand timing of the trains and bus
service as you said,accessibility.
Accessibility.
If you've been to New York, howmany of the uh elevators are
broken down, like they neverwork, so you know you're lucky
if the station even has anelevator.
Yeah, exactly so you have allthis money going into the
accessibility side of it andlike all these improvements.
But the trump administrationdoesn't like the congestion
(07:56):
pricing.
They have claimed that it hurtsworking class.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
New yorkers because every working class new yorker
lives in lower manhattan anddrives their own car and they
can afford to park a car inlower Manhattan and drive in and
out.
They totally don't take thesubway.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Yeah, and a lot of New Yorkers support this program
.
Trump administration does not,and they have set multiple
deadlines for the city to endcongestion pricing.
Those deadlines have come andpassed.
They've been extended.
The head of the MTA has saiddon't worry about the deadlines,
we will continue operatingcongestion pricing.
Even Kathy Hochul has said thecameras are going to stay on,
the tolling is going to stay on.
She's met with Trump twice totell him to drop it.
(08:33):
So we'll see what happens Atthe moment it's still going
Through, at least.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I think there's like a court date in October is kind
of what's next.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So we'll kind of keep an eye on this one, yeah,
moving into our number two onthe list is the California
High-Speed Rail.
Now we've done a whole episodeabout High-Speed Rail.
We talked a lot aboutCalifornia, so take a look at
that episode.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
We do owe it its own episode.
In general, I think CaliforniaHigh-Speed Rail should get its
own episode yeah absolutely, butjust a little bit of a recap.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
California high-speed rail was first approved in 2008
with the goal of connecting SanFrancisco to Los Angeles with a
bullet train that would takeyou less than three hours to get
between the two cities.
It has experienced years ofdelays.
Costs have gone up.
It was initially planned to bebuilt for.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
There's a clip that's been going around from Gavin
Newsom where he was lookingreally young with no gray hairs
or anything.
I forget what year it is and hewas saying that they'd be
riding on it by like 2020, I'mpretty sure, but it's gone
through a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Costs have skyrocketed.
We know this.
It's a very difficult terrainto build through.
There's all of these reasonswhy.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Lawsuits over environmental concerns.
The EIS statements for this, toput together the environmental
impact statements for them, wereimmense.
When you're covering this muchground, especially going through
more environmentally sensitiveareas and whatnot.
It's been just the definitionof like over bureaucratized I
(10:07):
don't know new word for you.
It's been a lot.
It's been a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
New words brought to you by Lewis.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So fast forward to this era.
Trump is now in his crosshairsand this isn't the first time.
They canceled about a billiondollars in federal funding
during his first term.
That was reinstated during theBiden term and now things have
escalated in this new term.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Yeah, so the administration has formally
launched a review of theprojects targeting $4 billion in
federal funding.
Sean Duffy actually went toCalifornia and had a press
conference about this, where hewas shouted at by protesters for
a lot of it.
We'll insert a little clip ofthat right here, and you know
(10:51):
what You're going to have peoplewho love fraud, who love waste,
who love trains to nowhere.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
All of us up here.
We do not love fraud, waste andabuse.
His quote from the pressconference we're not going to
shovel taxpayer money into abottomless pit of bureaucratic
mismanagement.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Yeah, no, it's.
I mean to pretend that it hasbeen managed well, though I mean
I do.
There has definitely been somemismanagement, don't get me
wrong.
But, like at, you want to cutthe funding for it.
Now, right, like it's, it's,you know they're, it's being
built.
Like to say that there's notracks being laid, there's no
progress, is incorrect.
The project is making forwardprogress.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
It also still has popular approval in California.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
Yeah, which is what matters.
They are footing the majorityof the bill for this.
It's definitely interesting.
I do know that they recentlyappointed a new CEO to
California High Speed Rail andthat is a sign of like.
Okay, they're actively tryingto improve.
(11:59):
They know that there is roomfor improvement.
But um, to try to kill thisproject while it's very well
underway there, there it.
Unlike Texas central, which wetalked about in a previous
episode, this one is more thanshovel ready.
It is literally.
There are shovels in the ground, there are tracks being laid,
there are bridges being built.
To stop it now makes no sense.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Yep, Right now they're focusing on the 171 mile
segment between Merced andBakersfield, hopefully opening
by 2033.
They've spent $14 billion.
10.5 of that has come from thestate of California.
They need about $7 billion moreto keep construction on track.
It creates 15,000 jobs.
They've built 50 majorstructures for this.
(12:38):
Like you said, it is going soto threaten to remove funding
now, yeah, it's just.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
It's really frustrating to see that,
absolutely.
So we'll kind of keep folksposted on that as well.
I don't know what to say aboutthat one.
I'd like to say that I'moptimistic.
They're going to figure it.
Well.
I don't know what to say aboutthat one.
I'd like to say that I'moptimistic.
They're going to figure it out.
I think that they might need tofigure it out without more
federal funding, and I don'tknow.
I mean, if any state has theresources to do that, it's
(13:07):
probably California.
I think there's some lawsuitspotentially getting involved
here too.
So I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, we'll keep you posted.
We will do a California HighSpeed episode in the near future
.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
We're going to jump right back into this episode in
just a second, but first, if youhave not liked this video, go
ahead and do so.
Also, leave a comment.
We love reading all of them andrespond to as many as we can.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And be sure that you are subscribed so that you catch
every episode as they come out.
Please share this with yourfriends and if you don't have
time to watch YouTube videos inthe future, you can catch us on
any of the podcast platformsthat are out there.
Just be sure to leave us arating and give us a comment.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
The third project on our list is fairly close to home
for us.
The city we've been to in ourSan Antonio using only public
transit episode is the SanAntonio Green Line BRT project.
Now this one is literallyalready being constructed and it
is a 12-mile BRT line that willconnect from the San Antonio
(14:05):
Airport in the north throughdowntown and to a transit center
down in the south.
It will actually include alittle over four miles of actual
dedicated center running BRTlanes that are kind of separated
.
You're going to have off board,fair, off board, fair off board
fair.
You're going to have an offboard fair collection, a lot of
(14:27):
things that you'd like to see ina BRT system to kind of keep
them moving.
If you are interested in a coolBRT project that is just now
open actually I'm just thinkingabout this we did an episode on
it a few weeks back theMinneapolis BRT Minneapolis-St
Paul kind of BRT stuff going on.
You can go check that out.
The Gold Line, thank you.
Also, with this project in SanAntonio you'll have frequencies
(14:49):
of every 10 to 15 minutes, which, for transit here in Texas, is
pretty gold standard, andthey're adding 26 bus stations
across the city, which is a hugeaddition.
Absolutely and unfortunately,this is another project with
some federal funds that arebeing tied up at the moment.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah, as you said, some of the construction's
already started.
They started moving utilitiesin 2024, and now they were
expecting to break ground inearly 2025, with operations
starting in August of 2027.
Right In total, the entireproject was estimated at $446
million, which is a lot but notcrazy numbers when we talk about
(15:29):
transit projects.
Right Right Via the agency inSan Antonio, they secured a $268
million grant from the federalgovernment to help this project
along.
It was the largest federalinvestment in Via in their
history.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And for those of you not familiar with San Antonio,
there is no rail system at all.
It is only buses.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Largest city in the US without rail.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, they have a ton of buses and they actually ran
pretty well in our experiencewhen we were there, at least
inside of the first highway ring, from what we were talking with
folks about.
The further out you get,unsurprisingly the worse the
service generally gets.
So investing in real BRT likethis is a huge step for San
Antonio.
In reading more about this, itseems like some of the reasons
(16:16):
that the money is being flaggedis literally it's being caught
up in some of the DEI type stuff.
Right now A lot of grants fortransit projects do kind of
include that sort of language,because it was a major focus,
especially under the Bidenadministration, making sure the
money is being spent equitablyand all of this sort of stuff.
So included in all of thesegrant proposals for the most
(16:38):
part is all of that language.
So this might not be the onlyand I mean we'll talk more about
a few more later but this mightnot be the only project that's
going to be caught up in that.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Also really frustrating because I mean, what
is transit?
I mean transit has a lot of DEIfocus.
You are connecting usuallyhistorically disenfranchised
parts of cities to the main partof this.
You know, the main core peoplewho generally use transit are
those who may not have a car andwhether that's for income
reasons or personal choice, youknow you, you have to be able to
serve all of the communityright and provide equity to all
(17:07):
of the community.
So of course, if they are doingtheir search bar you know right
investigations into the grantthen they're going to find this.
What's also the mostfrustrating about this is that
this grant was already awarded.
Disbursements should behappening.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Right, and that is an important point to that.
It was already allocated, theyalready went through their
approval process and now they'retrying to claw the money back,
which not a great look.
Uh, making you know, kind oflike.
Why would anyone trust thefederal government about
anything If money that thefederal government allocates,
the federal government actuallythen later goes oh, actually I
(17:45):
don't know about that and thentries to pull it back to your
point too.
On the like, especially in acity like San Antonio, there are
very few people who areintentionally wanting to take
transit there because SanAntonio is such a car centric
place.
We did meet with one of thosegroups there, strongtown, san
Antonio, who is doing a lot ofwork.
There are some folks in thatgroup who are psyched about
(18:08):
using an e-bike and using viawhen need be and choose to live
car free.
But the vast majority of folksriding the bus in San Antonio
it's not by choice, it's becauseyou know they either can't
afford a car, they can't drive acar, whatever their reason may
be.
So, yeah, it's so important,especially in a city like that.
Yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
So number four on our list is the Virginia Railway
expansion.
This is sort of a collection ofprojects in the Virginia area,
mostly centered aroundWashington DC.
But the TRB program is aneffort to enhance passenger and
freight rail capacity along theI-95 corridor.
(18:48):
Now this project has again it'skind of a lot of projects that
are in the works.
You have the long bridgeexpansion, which is one of the
primary rail bridges over thepotomac.
It goes right into washingtondc.
We've ridden it.
When we did our dc in a day.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Yeah, some of the wmata train lines when
connecting to reagan airport umalso to other destinations
throughout virginia.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So yeah, absolutely.
It passes literally rightbeside the jefferson memorial,
so you have a lot of trafficgoing through here.
It's also one of the vitaltransportation links in the
region and at its peak operationit's hitting like 95% capacity.
So they're on the brink ofbeing over capacity on this and
it's going to really create moreof a bottleneck.
(19:30):
So that is a huge criticalinfrastructure project that
needs to get done.
Neck so that is a huge criticalinfrastructure project that
needs to get done.
You also have the.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
I always say this poorly with the L'Enfant station
improvement.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
So this is one of the stations in the DC area but
it's one of the busiest VREstations and they need to
increase the service there.
And then also third trackadditions in multiple counties,
including Prince WilliamStadford and Spotsylvania
counties to improve theirreliability and service.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And in December 2023, the VPRA, the Virginia
Passenger Rail Authority,secured a $729 million federal
grant, and this is currentlywhat is up in the air right now.
So this is not a small amountof money and it's affecting
several different projects here,as you outlined Again.
I mean, when you've got theserail bridges at 95% 97% capacity
(20:22):
in our nation's capital also.
Basically, it feels like theseare the sort of investments that
should definitely be being madeand it's just yet another thing
kind of caught up in thecurrent chaos surrounding all of
caught up in the current chaossurrounding all of these
projects in the Trumpadministration.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yeah, and you know you can have advocates who are
against things like passengerrail, whatever.
We have these arguments all thetime.
But this is also impactingfreight rail, right?
So this isn't just aboutpassenger rail, it's about total
rail connectivity in thisregion.
So these grants, you know theydo more than just support.
You know the liberal mobilityutopia, yes.
(20:58):
So with all this up in the air,virginia, with a couple other,
they're working with a coupleother government agencies to try
to find additional funding thatcan be used for these projects
and to get them done.
They're also looking at otherfunding mechanisms.
So this is again one that we'llkind of keep an eye on and see
if anything else comes up in theworks.
(21:20):
But I would call that LongBridge double tracking, that
Long Bridge expansion,definitely be in my top five
critical transportation projectsthat the Trump administration
is currently threatening Totally.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And this last one doesn't feel as exactly like a
public transit project, but itis a different type of transit
project and we wanted to includeit because it's something we've
talked about in the past before.
So this is the highway cap andstitch funding in the city of
Austin, here where we live, butthis is also affecting other
(21:53):
cities as well.
Who received money with thereconnecting communities grant?
The city of Austin was awarded$105 million from the federal
government last year for thisproject, which would go towards
the CAP project in downtownAustin.
There are a few CAPs beingadded on I-35.
We've talked about I-35 in thepast.
(22:14):
They're currently expanding itthrough downtown Austin, adding
basically three additional lanesin each direction.
Uh, making the scar through thecity even wider.
Funny, there's no threat tothat project.
There's no, no threat to thatproject so far they've already.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
They've already bulldozed half of the buildings
they were going to tear down andthey're about to start
demolishing the upper decks ontheir highway.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
It's a little sad to see some of the yeah, I mean a
lot of stuff is is yeah, it'sgoing to be an ugly couple years
in austin while that projectgoes underway amongst other
projects going on in the city atthe same time.
But anyway, the $105 million isbeing spent for the Cesar
Chavez to kind of 4th Streethighway cap area.
The city has plans to do somesort of park on top of it.
(22:58):
They're kind of still dialingin exactly what would go there.
Yep, um, and if it's actuallyeven going to happen.
There was initially we did anepisode about highway caps.
Uh, it was supposed to be votedon in december and then tech
stock got delayed so it gotpushed back to march.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
Yeah, and then with this it's now pushed back even
further it's pushed back to may,I think, and so, uh, it just
keeps getting.
You know, the football keepsgetting kicked down the field,
but, um, we'll see what happens.
I wasn't expecting a footballreference from you.
Sorry, continue.
I grew up in the South.
One of the reasons why thiskeeps getting kicked down the
(23:34):
road is that the project hasballooned to about $1.4 billion.
A lot of that is cost increase,just post-COVID cost increase.
The city of Austin.
They have to come up with a $45million match to actually
accept the grant money from thefederal government, so there's a
lot up in the air with this.
We want to see this projecthappen.
(23:55):
We want to see things like theReconnecting Communities Grant,
things like the NeighborhoodAccess and Equity Grant Program.
We want to see these thingssucceed, because there are areas
of the country that were justcompletely demolished and
divided by highways and this isa great opportunity to reconnect
those neighborhoods.
Also, it's a great opportunityto take what would typically be
(24:18):
a dead space in your city andcreate a vibrant you know, plaza
, playground, city market,whatever on top of it, and we've
seen great examples of thisacross the country.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's like.
I think it's important to notehere too.
Like I do, I have some qualmsin general.
I mean, we've talked about thisfurther at length in our caps
and stitches episode and if youwant to have an interesting
conversation about caps andstitches, you should talk to
Cutter from our previous episodeearlier this year.
He and I have had some verylengthy discussions about it and
they won me over on some of it,but I still think that the
(24:50):
downtown caps should happen.
But $1.4 billion or something todo caps all the way up north of
downtown that starts to feellike a lot of money that the
city probably could allocatebetter elsewhere.
The only other qualm I havewith this is that, like, this is
a reconnecting communitiesgrant that is literally being
used to essentially support ahighway widening project, not a,
(25:13):
not, not something that is likereally mending wounds and
whatnot.
It's like, sure, we'll have acap for a few blocks here, but
like, like we're going to have awider highway through the rest
of the city.
So I have my fair share ofqualms with them.
I do think that a downtownhighway cap would be a major
improvement in Austin.
I'm less sold compared to youon some of the more northern
(25:34):
ones, but you can go back to ourprevious episode if you want to
learn more about that kind ofelement to this.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So we'll continue to keep an eye on this, so we'll
keep you informed.
But those are our sort of topfive, sort of transit
initiatives or transportationprojects that we think are sort
of at risk with the currentadministration.
There's other notable mentionsin there.
We had the Texas Central, whichwe did in a previous episode.
We also we should probably talkabout this in a future episode,
(26:02):
but Trump administration takingover the revitalization of the
Penn Station in New York.
A lot of interesting stuffthere, so take a look at it
Totally.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
And I mean some of these.
You know the Penn Station thing, like I think you had said
before, it's like Kathy Hochulcame out and was like great,
that's less funding burden onthe MTA to kind of make this
happen.
So some of these could end upbeing okay.
I also have to mention ourlocal project here, Project
Connect.
At this stage in 2026 is whenthey would have been really
(26:34):
submitting their finalapplication, for I believe the
New Starts program, which wouldrequire half of Project Connect
essentially would be coming fromfederal funding.
I'm pretty I don't want to be adowner but like I'm pretty
skeptical that that's going tohappen, especially when you look
at like all of thedocumentation that ATP has put
(26:55):
together has been, you know,following what the New Starts
program is asking for, whichincludes a whole bunch of like
DEI related content.
Like I mean there's sectionsabout like equity and race and
income and like why you know howthis is.
All of that stuff's gonna getflagged.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
I say you just take the Word document and you
control and replace all mentionsof equity with corporate
investment.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
But yeah, I do think that they need to reframe a lot
and there's still some time todo this, but I'm still pretty
nervous about it.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Yeah, we'll see.
Like I said, we'll keep youinformed, posted on what is
happening with Project Connectand other things, as the Trump
administration continues on withsome of these grant freezes.
But that is our list of the topfive, plus some honorable
mentions there or notablementions maybe not honorable.
If you have your own list,please share those in the
(27:47):
comments.
Let us know what you thinkabout this list, if you have any
opinions about the freezes onthese grants or the risks to
these programs.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah, we'd love to hear what you have to say, and
if you haven't liked this videoalready, please consider doing
so.
It helps us out quite a bitAlso.
Just subscribing is a big thing.
Send so it helps us out quite abit Also.
Just subscribing is a big thing.
Send it to your friends,whatever it may be, but without
further ado thank you all.
So much for watching and enjoythe rest of your Transit.
Tangents Tuesday.
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