Caltrain Modernization, San Francisco to San Jose

San Mateo Daily Journal/Government Watch/Regional Government, 7/30/15.

"On Wednesday, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Board of Directors approved allocating $20 million to help fund Caltrain’s Modernization Program.

Train Modernization route, San Francisco to San Jose

The funds will help support electrification of 51 miles of tracks between San Jose and San Francisco. Caltrain’s nearly $1.53 billion program, which involves purchasing electric trains, is projected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion from cars along Highway 101 and Interstate 280.

The air district’s contribution of $5 million a year for the next four years is sourced from the state’s Mobile Incentive Fund, which is collected from a $2 fee on vehicle registrations in the Bay Area."

Related article -  San Francisco Business Journal/Marlize van Romburgh, Special Projects Editor, 12/4/14, "All eyes on Caltrain as electric train environmental report emerges." Caltrain will release the final environmental impact report for its $1.7 billion train electrification and modernization project today, the Daily Journal reported. ....  Caltrain embarks on the project amid projections that its ridership will more than double in the next few years from the 1.3 million monthly figure it currently experiences. The agency hopes to have 75 percent of trains electrified by 2021, and the entire 51-mile track electrified by 2040 as part of an effort to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions." 

Reference, Bay Area Air Quality Management District.  Project overview,  San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA).  "The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board’s (PCJPB or Caltrain’s) Electrification project will replace Caltrain’s existing diesel service with a fully electrified service from the 4th and King station in San Francisco to the Tamian station in San Jose. This is one of the main components of the Caltrain Modernization program (CalMod). The CalMod program provides the commuter rail system with the strategic vision to improve system performance while minimizing equipment and operating costs, and is critical to the long-term financial sustainability of Caltrain. The project’s various components include the installation of two substations for traction power, poles and an overhead contact system, and signal and grade crossing circuitry changes, as well as the acquisition of electric rolling stock, known as electric multiple units (EMUs), to replace the majority of the current diesel trains. The project will extend for 52 miles from San Francisco to San Jose. It will result in faster and more frequent service, reduction of air pollutant emissions, and reduction of noise and vibration. The vehicle replacement portion of the Caltrain Electrification Project will take place concurrently with the electrification infrastructure portion. The first phase of the vehicle replacement project, part of the CalMod Early Investment Program, will procure 96 new EMU’s to replace 20 locomotives and 73 passenger cars on a seat-for-seat replacement basis at an estimated cost of $440 million in year-of-expenditures dollars. For the second phase, the remaining diesel locomotives and passenger cars will progressively be replaced as the vehicles reach the end of their useful life. Caltrain has completed the preliminary engineering and the federal and state environmental phases of the Caltrain Electrification Project."

Note photograph from San Francisco Business Journal; graphic from the SFCTA project overview.
 
Posted by Kathy Meeh