Pelosi Remarks at Transbay Transit Center Groundbreaking

Contact: Brendan Daly/Nadeam Elshami/Drew Hammill, 202-226-7616

San Francisco – Speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks this morning at the groundbreaking of the Transbay Transit Center, a new transit and high-speed rail station in downtown San Francisco. The new multi-modal station will serve nine transportation systems, including California high-speed rail, and will create 48,000 new jobs. Below are the Speaker’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

“For generations, San Francisco and California have stood as beacons of innovation for the nation and the world. We’ve been a bastion of creativity and entrepreneurial thinking; we’ve embraced what’s possible in technology and science, clean energy and education.

“California always leads the way – and our great city has led the charge toward a future of prosperity founded in the drive, determination, and spirit of our workers.

“Today, in breaking ground on the Transbay Transit Center, we are opening a new chapter in that history of progress. We are coming together to create jobs and revitalize our economy; to make San Francisco, once again, a national model for economic development.

“In breaking ground on the Transbay Transit Center today, we are laying the first building blocks of a new ‘Grand Central Station of the West,’ connecting cities and communities throughout the region and across the state.

“It will be a crossroads of commerce, jobs, transit, and retail. And it will increase public transit options, reduce congestion on our roads, and cut carbon emissions.

“This project represents the best product of a strong public-private partnership: a thriving center of economic activity; a center for good-paying jobs and a better quality of life for local workers and families.

“Increasing access to quality public transportation and improving San Francisco’s infrastructure have long been among my top priorities in Congress.

“That’s why I have fought to secure critical investments from the federal government for Transbay:

• Recovery Act – $400 million in funding, allowing us to put people to work sooner in good-paying jobs and reducing the overall cost of the project by $100 million
• Starting in 1998 – more than $60 million in designated federal transportation funds
• This year – a $171 million loan from the Department of Transportation

“Out of these investments and partnerships with private businesses and local and state government, Transbay will create 48,000 jobs over the seven-year construction period – including as many as 500 jobs this year. When completed, it will boost the gross regional product by $80 billion and increase personal income in the area by $1 billion.

“Transbay’s success will mark a significant step forward for the dream of high-speed rail across California. And it is central to our work to invest in our nation’s infrastructure, and rebuild and renew America.

“In this Congress, we have made an unprecedented commitment to high-speed rail – creating jobs and connecting communities: Recovery Act – $8 billion, including $2.34 billion for California; Budget for Fiscal Year 2010 – $2.5 billion.

“Projects like the Transbay Transit Center are part of our broader vision for a growing, thriving, dynamic economy.

“It embodies the spirit and goals of Democrats’ ‘Make It In America’ strategy – because we know that when we ‘make it in America,’ we create jobs and lead the world economy.

“Our manufacturing agenda will: close loopholes that encourage outsourcing; create new American jobs inventing clean energy technology and building the wind turbines and solar panels the world will buy; put returning veterans to work in the clean energy jobs of tomorrow.

“Today, we break ground on another step forward for the workers and families of San Francisco, the Bay Area, and California. Their hopes are riding on us.”