It’s a big day at Metro HQ in downtown, with Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood here for a town hall meeting on the next federal transportation bill. That is set to start in a few minutes and I’ll post about it this afternoon.
In the meantime, Sen. Boxer and Secretary LaHood held a press conference across the street at Metro’s downtown bus maintenance facility. Both touted the nearly $1.1 billion from last year’s federal stimulus bill that went to transportation projects in Los Angeles County.
Where is that money going? Here’s a short list:
Federal officials say that these projects have created or saved 11,700 jobs in L.A. County.
Attentive readers of The Source know that the Federal Transit Administration recently rejected a $77 million request for money for preliminary engineering on both projects because neither project is yet officially a New Starts program.
I followed up and asked if he thought the subway and connector were worthwhile projects. LaHood said that he would not evaluate the projects at a press conference.
More on the town hall later….
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
[…] federal dollars on operations. For more on Friday's events, The Source has two stories: one on LaHood and Boxer's press conference and one on the invitation-only town hall […]
[…] more on today's events, The Source has two stories on today's events. One on LaHood and Boxer's press conference and one on the invitation-only Town Hall […]