The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) supports the SacRT Mobility Hub Implementation Plan application for the FY2022-23 Planning and Capacity Building grant program. The application is submitted by Civic Thread in partnership with Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) and Sacramento Building Healthy Communities (Sac BHC). On October 25, 2023, ECOS submitted a letter of support for this application.
Click here to read our letter of support for this application.
On May 30, 2023, ECOS submitted a letter of support for AB 1052, Sacramento Regional Transit District’s Ballot Authority.
Below is the text of our letter.
On behalf of the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS), we thank you for authoring AB 1052 and express our support for the bill as it moves through the legislative process.
Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) continues to face reduced ridership and higher costs originally driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of those negative impacts continue today, along with the lasting societal changes the pandemic caused.
We strongly believe that a robust, efficient, and cost-effective SacRT transit system benefits all people within its service area, but some projects provide more benefits to a subset of the residents living within that service area. However, if SacRT wants to place a measure on the ballot to increase a sales or use tax, or property tax, that measure must cover its entire service area.
In the wake of these changes and the ongoing financial uncertainty, AB 1052 would give SacRT the authority to ask a subset of its service area to support paying for projects that would more directly benefit that area. Many much-needed community and SacRT projects are more localized, impacting and delivering the most benefits to a geographically specific region as opposed to the entire widespread, 440-square mile SacRT service area.
We know that efficient public transit provides tremendous regional benefits. SacRT services reduce traffic, improve air quality, boost regional economic growth, create jobs, and connect neighborhoods. It also offers residents a cost-effective way to get to and from school, work, medical appointments, and essential services. In addition, it provides mobility equity, by providing greater access to opportunities and services so all members of our community can connect, thrive, and prosper.
ECOS was founded in 1971 as a visionary and action-oriented coalition for our region.
Today the organizational and individual members of ECOS work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve air quality, promote smart growth land use and transportation principles, promote equity in housing, promote sustainable regional water supply for all users, public health and opportunities, and promote regional habitat conservation.
We are pleased to offer our support for AB 1052 and I thank you again for carrying the bill.
April 1, 2023 marked SacRT’s 50th anniversary of operation. ECOS celebrates this important milestone with SacRT by looking back at Sacramento’s history and celebrating what is to come. SacRT has played an integral role in generations of Sacramentans. Transit is woven into the fabric of daily life across the Sacramento region.
ECOS supports the insertion of dense development around existing light rail stations and major bus corridors, and the continued expansion of the transit network in our region.
Learn more about the history of SacRT, check out their Anniversary Pop-Up Events and more, please visit https://www.sacrt.com/apps/sacrt-celebrates-50-years/.
On February 1, 2023, ECOS submitted a letter of support for Sacramento Regional Transit’s TIRCP Cycle 6 Grant Application.
On behalf of the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) I am pleased to provide this letter in enthusiastic support of Sacramento Regional Transit District’s (SacRT) application for the 2023 Cycle 6 TIRCP Grant for their Increasing Ridership Through System Enhancement (IRTSE) program.
This three-part project will increase ridership, reduce green-house gas emissions, and add light rail service to a new affordable housing project in Sacramento’s River District. Together, these system enhancements are an important step in a series of efforts to modernize the transit system that serves nearly 1.6 million people in California’s Capital County.
ECOS is in enthusiastic support of Sacramento Regional Transit’s (SacRT) 2022 application for a $5M grant from the Maintenance & Modernization Regional Program (MMRP) for the Folsom Light Rail Station Conversion and a $4.5M grant for Railroad Tie Replacement Projects.
Read our January 19, 2023 letter of support here.
SacRT is applying for a grant from the Federal Transit Administration’s Rail Vehicle Replacement Program. The application asks for help replacing our aging fleet of Light Rail Vehicles with modern new low-floor vehicles. As many of us know, many of the light rail cars still in use today were original to the system in 1987 and they are now past their useful life. In addition, the new vehicles are much more accessible for people with mobility issues and those taking bicycles or scooters on light rail for their first-mile/last-mile needs. On December 20, 2022 ECOS submitted a letter of support for SacRT’s application.
U.S. Post: PO Box 1526, Sacramento, CA 95812