(a) Prior to allocating funds appropriated from the Highway-Railroad Crossing Safety Account established pursuant to subdivision (j) of Section 8879.23, the commission, in cooperation with the Public Utilities Commission, the department, and the High-Speed Rail Authority, shall adopt guidelines to establish the criteria and process to allocate funds to an eligible project in the program. The guidelines shall be adopted no later than February 15, 2008, and only after the commission holds a public hearing in northern California and a public hearing in southern California to review and to receive public comment on the proposed guidelines. The commission may incorporate the hearings on the proposed guidelines into its regularly scheduled hearings.
(b) Funds available under this section shall be used to provide the state match for local, federal, or private funds for high-priority grade separation and railroad crossing safety improvements in California. The commission shall adopt strategies to invest these funds in a manner to make railroad crossing safety improvements at any of the following:
(1) Crossings where freight rail and passenger rail share the affected guideway.
(2) Crossings with high incidents of motor vehicle-rail or pedestrian-rail accidents.
(3) Crossings with high vehicle-hours of delay.
(4) Crossings where an improvement will result in quantifiable emission benefits.
(5) Crossings where the improvement will improve the flow of rail freight to or from a port facility.
(c) The guidelines adopted by the commission pursuant to subdivision (a) shall articulate the amount of funds appropriated to the account that will be expended for purposes of paragraph (1) of subdivision (j) of Section 8879.23 and for purposes of paragraph (2) of subdivision (j) of Section 8879.23.
(d) The commission shall include in its annual report to the Legislature, required by Section 14535, a summary of its activities related to the administration of this program. The summary should, at a minimum, include a description and the location of the projects contained in the program, the amount of funds allocated to each project, the status of each project, and a description of the improvements the program is achieving.
(Added by Stats. 2007, Ch. 181, Sec. 1. Effective August 24, 2007.)