After nearly a decade of struggles, Sacramento Regional Transit’s Blue Line light rail extension project is now full throttle. It needs to be. The local bus and rail agency is up against a “use it or lose it” $135 million federal deadline. Either it has trains rolling by Sept. 6, 2015, or risk losing its federal financial backing. Sacramento Regional Transit director Ed Scofield on the tracks of the $270 million light rail extension to Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, Calif., on Tuesday, August 26, 2014. The $270 million light-rail extension is 4.3 miles long.