{"id":25115,"date":"2024-08-13T11:58:36","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T18:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=25115"},"modified":"2024-08-19T16:29:39","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T23:29:39","slug":"caltrain-electric-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/caltrain-electric-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Caltrain unveils electric train, first of its kind in California"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Caltrain
Gov. Gavin Newsom and House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi at the Caltrain electric rail unveiling event on Aug. 10, 2024. (Joe Rosenheim\/Bay City News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

[We are on WhatsApp.\u00a0Start following us now<\/a>]<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Joe Rosenheim. Bay City News.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen to this note:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Viviana-4902395.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

The formal opening of Caltrain's innovative electric train, the first of its kind in California, took place Saturday morning in San Francisco.<\/span><\/p>\n

The event was attended by a group of politicians and other dignitaries who touted the project as a sign of renewed hope for modern railways and a precursor to similar projects elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

The launch began with a long series of short speeches, including from House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, followed by a train ride to Millbrae and back, exclusive to government, business and labor officials in attendance, along with the media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to these trains moving and making noise, but you won\u2019t notice it because they\u2019ll be so quiet,\u201d Breed said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caltrain, which began the $2.4 billion project in 2017, will gradually phase in electric trains to its existing diesel trains between now and Sept. 21, when its fleet is expected to be all-electric. Sunday marks the first day the new trains will be used for mass transit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local officials described the project as a dream long in the making that finally came to fruition through astonishing levels of inter-agency cooperation, the pooling of diverse funding sources and the tortuous navigation of a thorny political landscape.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the spirit of California and that spirit has alarmed the world,\u201d Newsom joked.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the trains \u201cwill set the template for the future of all railroads in the country, and when electric is the norm, we will likely say, \u2018It all started here in San Francisco.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman, the new trains will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 250,000 metric tons a year \u2014 the equivalent of taking 55,000 cars off the road. He said other benefits include faster service (electric trains accelerate and decelerate much more quickly), less noise, smoother rides and a host of new onboard amenities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is Wi-Fi, power outlets under every forward-facing seat, security cameras, digital displays, improved climate controls and redesigned accessible restrooms,\u201d Lieberman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Caltrain electrification project combines funding from numerous sources at all levels of government, including more than $2 billion combined from the federal and state governments, and approximately $250 million from local ballot measures, bridge toll funds, and contributions from San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of leadership at the federal, state and local levels trying to secure funding and overcome various political hurdles,\u201d Lieberman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speakers at Saturday's event said Caltrain's electric rail is both a triumph in itself and a boost to California's troubled plan to build a high-speed rail line from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a project that ties into Caltrain's electrification effort in some important ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

The state's original high-speed rail plan, which was approved for funding by voters in 2008, called for building new tracks along the entire rail line. That plan was later scrapped amid lawsuits from several peninsula cities opposing construction.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was replaced by a new plan that would share existing Caltrain tracks and then run the train through the Central Valley after the end of the Caltrain line in Gilroy (although Union Pacific, not Caltrain, owns the tracks between San Jose and Gilroy).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted to destroy the peninsula and all the cities filed lawsuits; it was like a prairie fire,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, as she chatted with her interlocutors during the train\u2019s 30-minute inaugural ride. \u201cSo we came up with the idea that the peninsula\u2019s high-speed rail would be Caltrain.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The new plan \u2014 and the federal funding its backers secured \u2014 breathed new life into the California project, Eshoo said. It also helped secure state and federal funding for the Caltrain project, because that initiative's success became central to the high-speed rail plan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHigh-speed rail has helped us secure funding for Caltrain because they will ultimately be running on the same tracks,\u201d Lieberman said.<\/span><\/p>\n

California plans aside, Lieberman stressed that Caltrain's achievement was already monumental.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a diesel-to-electric conversion, the first project of its kind in a generation in North America,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s been done before, but I think it was in the 1980s. This was a construction project along an 83-kilometer operating rail corridor. And this is an incredibly complex undertaking that was done outside of our work hours, meaning that workers were up late at night a lot. So a lot of the credit goes to the men and women who actually built this system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lieberman added that he expects Caltrain ridership levels to rebound after years of low numbers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice between the traffic on [U.S. Highway] 101 and riding on a beautiful, modern train \u2014 that\u2019s not even a choice,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be interested in:<\/strong> Redwood City Fire Chief Ray Iverson retires after 33-year career<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Estamos en WhatsApp.\u00a0Empieza a seguirnos ahora] Por Joe Rosenheim. Bay City News. Escucha esta nota:   La inauguraci\u00f3n formal del innovador tren el\u00e9ctrico de Caltrain, el primero de su tipo en California, tuvo lugar el s\u00e1bado por la ma\u00f1ana en San Francisco. El evento cont\u00f3 con la participaci\u00f3n de un grupo de pol\u00edticos y otros […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25216,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25115\/revisions\/25216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}