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SF Transportation Authority advances Prop L reprogramming, Kirkland Yard electrification draws CAC concern
Summary
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority approved a Prop L five-year prioritization amendment that reprograms $47 million to nine Muni maintenance projects while the Kirkland Yard electrification plan drew split support from the CAC over cost and reliability concerns.
The San Francisco County Transportation Authority on March 11 advanced an amendment to its Prop L five-year prioritization program (5 YPP) that would reprogram $47 million into nine specific Muni maintenance and rehabilitation projects, including station condition assessments, vehicle overhauls and facility upgrades.
Nick Smith, presenting the amendment, said the package raises the allocation for a Muni Metro stations condition assessment from an original $750,000 estimate to $1.5 million after consulting firms revised cost projections. The amendment also includes midlife overhauls for 32-foot, 40-foot and 60-foot buses and light-rail vehicles; a midlife overhaul program for 16 New Jersey PCC historic streetcars (Smith noted a $22 million funding gap); a placeholder for cable car restorations; procurement of 72 paratransit replacement vehicles; and the Kirkland Yard electrification project, which Smith said would fund MTA staff labor and design to bring power from the PG&E substation to the yard in order to support a conversion to battery-electric buses.
The Community Advisory Committee previously considered the package and "severed the Kirkland Yard electrification project from the 5 YPP item and failed to adopt a motion of support for it," CAC representative Kat Siegel told the board, citing CAC members' concerns about the cost-effectiveness and reliability of battery-electric buses. Smith and SFMTA staff told commissioners that the Kirkland Yard work is needed to address regular power outages at the facility and to prepare for either a partial or full conversion from the current 81 hybrid diesel buses to battery-electric buses.
SFMTA chief strategy staff clarified that the Kirkland Yard scope does not include converting trolley buses to battery operation. Smith said MTA will continue to refine the funding plan for Kirkland Yard as the project advances and will present updates on the agency's zero-emission transition plan to the Authority this summer.
The amendment was presented for board consideration; the transcript records the discussion, public comment absence, and staff commitments to follow up but does not show a detailed roll-call vote in the excerpt for this item. When allocations are requested for project phases, staff said they will expect fully funded phases or subphases before funds are released.
