Regional electrified, high speed Caltrain on board for 2019

San Mateo County Times/Aaron Kinney, 0/27/12.  "Speier, state and local leaders hail Caltrain milestone."

Say goodbye Caltrain relic..  

"We are here to reboot Caltrain," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, after the California Transportation Commission voted earlier in the day to release $39.8 million for work designing a new electronic brain to manage Caltrain's fleet, a critical first step in the roughly $1.5 billion project to overhaul the rail line. 

The overall modernization will entail switching Caltrain from diesel to electric power by 2019 between San Francisco and San Jose and replacing all the trains that run along that corridor. It will also prepare the system to handle high-speed rail trains when they arrive sometime next decade.

Caltrain backers say electrifying the rail line will make the cash-strapped system solvent, cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent, and increase service. "It will be faster, it will be better, it will be safer and it will be cheaper," said Speier, dubbing the planned railway the "Silicon bullet." 

The electrification project will be paid for with $706 million in Proposition 1A high-speed rail funds the state Legislature approved in July and $500 million from the federal government, with the rest coming from local and regional sources including Caltrain's three member agencies: San Francisco, the San Mateo County Transit District and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority."  Read article. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh