Rail lines need funds

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Long Beach Press Telegram

Rail lines need funds
By Lisa Friedman
From Our Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Supporters of a $2.5 billion plan to get more trucks off the roads by improving rail lines said they are depending upon the clout of a few local politicians to secure much-needed federal funding for the program.

Yet as the U.S. Senate prepares to take up a $284 billion national transportation bill, officials already are dampening expectations that it will include the entire $900 million that they have been seeking for the Alameda Corridor East.

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Currently the highway reauthorization measure that the House approved last month does not even mention Alameda Corridor East, much less promise it any cash. But that doesn't appear to worry local leaders who insist it will by the time it hits President Bush's desk.

"The project will get funded. It's for how much, that's the question," said Kevin McKee, spokesman for Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar. Miller and Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, D-Long Beach, both members of the House Transportation Committee, are leading congressional efforts to include money for the Alameda Corridor East program in the reauthorization bill.

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More than a dozen other Southern California lawmakers also have joined in the effort Last month, the bipartisan contingent sent a letter to transportation panel leaders stressing the importance of Alameda Corridor East to the entire country. Improving rail lines at dozens of grade crossings, they said, is necessary for relieving the sharp increase in truck congestion expected over the next decade.

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