Rail to Redlands moves forward with two major grants

Thanks to the recent acquirement of two major grants totaling $17.9 million the Rail to Redlands Project is transitioning further from an idea to a working project. The progress brought together the Rail to Redlands Working Group, headed by County Supervisor James Ramos, for its meeting on Thursday, Aug. 18, to announce the grants and inform the public of the project's status in other areas.

According to Ramos, the Working Group was created to help inform and gather public comment while bringing the involved agencies together to work as a team, led by SANBAG.

Within the past few weeks, the Rail to Redlands Project has won a $9.2 million State Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) grant and a $8.678,312 Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The project was able to win the TIGER grant thanks to teamwork and partnership with the office of Congressman Pete Aguilar, Ramos said.

"The TIGER grant is one of the most elusive grants in federal funding. It's very exacting and the competition is fierce," said Curt Lewis, grants coordinator for Aguilar's office. "We were denied last year but we didn't give up."

The total project is expected to cost $250 million - funded by federal, state and local funds including Measure I - and will create a new nine-mile five-station rail service from the San Bernardino Transit Center to the University of Redlands. Stations will be built at the Inland Regional Center on Waterman Avenue, the Esri campus at New York Street in Redlands, the University of Redlands and at the historic Santa Fe Depot in downtown Redlands. The system will run along existing railroad right-of-way owned by SANBAG.

At the Transit Center, the Redlands Rail will connect commuters to the Metrolink system to Los Angeles and the sbX bus system to Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Among the milestones reached by the project is the formation of a team to procure the rail system vehicles.

According to Carrie Schindler, director of SANBAG transit/rail programs, it will be a blended rail system using two smaller diesel multiple units (DMUs) to make 25 round trips per day and one Metrolink train making one to two round trips per day for peak commuters.

"We really like the vehicles they're really modern looking and wear well," Schindler said.

The use of smaller DMUs is a change suggested during the public review of the environmental impact report (EIR) in 2014. The DMUs are about one-third the size of the Metrolink trains. They are also quieter, more efficient (using low-emission, Clean Diesel engines), and cheaper to operate.

Other progress included SANBAG entering cooperative agreements with the University of Redlands and Esri.

According to Redlands Mayor Pro Temp Jon Harrison, preliminary construction could begin as early as 2017 with utility relocations. Construction for the larger project is expected to begin late 2018.

The main construction will include building the five stations, replacing three bridges, rebuilding one bridge and grading intersections to meet the requirements for exemption from blowing whistles at crossings.

Passenger service is expected to begin in 2020.

Tim Watkins, SANBAG chief of legislative and public affairs, shared that it is now time to shift public outreach from its previous focus on the Redlands Rail as a project to it as a service.

During public comment, Redlands Unified School District Board President Patty Holohan the trains will be a welcome service to the area's youth and students.

"Right now a lot of our youth are taking Uber as a second means of transportation and our students will really benefit from being able to go from one place to another and have to worry about who will drive them back," Holohan said. "A lot of students are not getting their driver's license because of vehicle and insurance costs."

San Bernardino Mayor R. Carey Davis called the Rail to Redlands an "important link for development and revitalization in downtown San Bernardino."