President-elect Joe Biden has tapped a familiar California figure to run his transportation transition team.
Phil Washington, the chief executive of Los Angeles County’s transit agency, will oversee a panel of experts tasked with advising Biden on the direction of federal transportation policy and agencies, including Amtrak and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Washington has led L.A. Metro through the planning and early construction of one of the country’s most ambitious rail building booms, with five projects currently under construction and nearly a dozen other rail and bus projects slated to break ground in coming decades.
Much of the construction is being funded by revenue from Measure M, approved by more than 71% of voters in 2016. The sales tax increase, one of the largest local transportation funding efforts in American history, will raise an estimated $120 billion for transit and highway projects over its first four decades.
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