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State Rail Assistance Program

State Funding

Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, created the State Rail Assistance Program by directing a portion of new revenue specifically to intercity rail and commuter rail.

  • SB 1 directs a 0.5% portion of new diesel sales tax revenue for allocation: half to the five commuter rail providers and half to intercity rail corridors
  • Half of revenue is allocated in equal shares to commuter operators through 2019-20, and via guidelines thereafter
  • Half of revenue is allocated to intercity rail corridors such that each of the existing three corridors receives at least 25% of the intercity rail share
  • Funding is available for capital and operations

The majority of program funding is directed by statutory formula to rail operators, with guidelines defining process and timeline for agencies to obtain funding.

2024 Recipients

In July 2025, the California State Transportation Agency updated its approved application list to reflect additional programming of formula funds by commuter and intercity rail recipients, including projects selected with funding from Cycle 2 funding.  While review and development of future guidelines is currently underway, in December 2025, CalSTA administratively extended the current guidelines by an additional year with updated funding numbers through FY25-26. In total, the SRA Program has awarded funds to 11 agencies with a total of $245.1 million awarded since 2018. View complete list of approved projects as of July 9, 2025 (PDF).

2026 Flexible State Rail Assistance Funding

In September 2026, CalSTA released the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the flexible State Rail Assistance funding. As outlined in the guidelines, CalSTA determined the distribution of this funding, which represents 25 percent of the total share of SRA funding directed to each of the state’s three intercity rail corridors with regularly scheduled service. 

Project concept letters are due to SRA@calsta.ca.gov no later than October 19th by 5pm. Please see the NOFO below for more detail.
Notice of Funding Opportunity – Cycle 2 of Flexible State Rail Assistance – September 8, 2026 (PDF)

Adopted Guidelines and Allocation Request Form