Caltrain could get $260M boost for electrification project

Bill to ensure a 2024 completion date was written by Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mullin, who represents Peninsula

SAN MATEO >> Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Kevin Mullin on Wednesday announced a new Assembly bill that would give Caltrain $260 million to close a funding gap for its ambitious electrification project and ensure the project's completion by 2024.

The new bill comes after Caltrain announced in June 2021 that the transition from diesel locomotives to state-of-the-art electric trains will take two years longer than expected and inflate the price tag by more than $300 million.

Under the proposed bill, money from the state's General Fund would go to the California State Transportation Agency to help realize Caltrain's ambitious plans to reinvent the 150-year-old railroad from a commuter-centric line to an electrified BART-like mass transit system with more trains and more frequency.

According to Mullin, the project will provide “immense environmental benefits” to the Peninsula community by reducing greenhouse gas emissions on the 51-mile corridor from San Francisco to San Jose.

“Caltrain electrification is necessary on so many levels,” Mullin said. “It is essential to our local economies, both now and in the future because this region and this corridor is a hub of creativity and entrepreneurship that have changed our country. Caltrain is the spine that helps support our innovation economy.”

The money will help to keep Caltrain on schedule.

Back in June, the agency said crews had experienced complications with the signaling system that will manage crossing gates along the new line since breaking ground on the project in 2017. COVID-19 has also disrupted supply chains and delayed train manufacturer Stadler, which is building Caltrain's new fleet of 133 electric train cars in Switzerland and Salt Lake City. The trains are now expected to come in late 2023, so a late 2024 completion date is now the target.

But money and delays aren't Caltrain's only problems. The agency has also been plagued by some of the worst pandemic ridership numbers in the nation, with recent figures showing the system has only recovered 20% of its pre-pandemic ridership. Daily trips to downtown San Francisco are at 1,400, down from 20,000, according to Caltrain ridership data.

With remote work now a permanent lifestyle for much of the workforce and COVID-19 still keeping people away from public transit two years after the first public health lockdowns, transit agencies in the Bay Area have been struggling to get back to normal.

Officials like Mullin are hoping that electrification will attract more people to ride the system, laying the foundation to meet the goal of tripling capacity by 2040, the equivalent of carrying 5.5 lanes of traffic on Highway 101.

Caltrain Board of Directors Vice-Chair Charles Stone said Mullin's bill will help Caltrain “provide Bay Area residents and visitors with the world-class transportation system they deserve.”

San Mateo County Economic Development Association CEO Rosanne Foust said the project is essential to ensure the county's longterm recovery from COVID-19.

“We must complete this project to… get people back to work and increase economic activity in downtowns around stations,” Foust said. “This investment will immediately pay off for the environment, for jobs and for small businesses. A fully electrified Caltrain is essential to improved service, increased frequency, reduced traffic congestion, carbon reduction and a strong local economy.”