[We are on WhatsApp. Start following us now]
By Joe Rosenheim. Bay City News.
Listen to this note:
The formal opening of Caltrain's innovative electric train, the first of its kind in California, took place Saturday morning in San Francisco.
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.
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.
“We’re looking forward to these trains moving and making noise, but you won’t notice it because they’ll be so quiet,” Breed said.
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 public transportation.
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.
“This is the spirit of California and that spirit has alarmed the world,” Newsom joked.
He said the trains “will set the template for the future of all railroads in the country, and when electric is the norm, we will likely say, ‘It all started here in San Francisco.’”
According to Caltrain spokesman Dan Lieberman, the new trains will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 250,000 metric tons a year — 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.
“There is Wi-Fi, power outlets under every forward-facing seat, security cameras, digital displays, improved climate controls and redesigned accessible restrooms,” Lieberman said.
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.
“We had a lot of leadership at the federal, state and local levels trying to secure funding and overcome various political hurdles,” Lieberman said.
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.
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.
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).
“They wanted to destroy the peninsula and all the cities filed lawsuits; it was like a prairie fire,” said U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, as she chatted with her interlocutors during the train’s 30-minute inaugural ride. “So we came up with the idea that the peninsula’s high-speed rail would be Caltrain.”
The new plan — and the federal funding its backers secured — 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.
“High-speed rail has helped us secure funding for Caltrain because they will ultimately be running on the same tracks,” Lieberman said.
California plans aside, Lieberman stressed that Caltrain's achievement was already monumental.
“This is a diesel-to-electric conversion, the first project of its kind in a generation in North America,” he said. “It’s 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.”
Lieberman added that he expects Caltrain ridership levels to rebound after years of low numbers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The choice between the traffic on [U.S. Highway] 101 and riding on a beautiful, modern train — that’s not even a choice,” he added.
You may be interested in: Redwood City Fire Chief Ray Iverson retires after 33-year career
