News Wire top stories of 2024, No. 7: Caltrain electrification

Start of electrified service concludes lengthy construction process, brings immediate ridership gains

Electrified and diesel trainsets meet at station — Two Caltrain eras meet as southbound train No. 240, with one of two Stadler electric multiple-unit trainsets in service on Sunday, Aug. 11, meets northbound train No. 237, powered by F40PH-2 No. 915 at Millbrae, Calif. Elrond Lawrence

The switch to full electrification between San Francisco and San Jose came on Sept. 21 (San Jose-Gilroy service is still diesel powered), and ridership showed an immediate jump. In October, the first full month of electrified service, ridership increased 54% from the same month a year earlier. The average weekday ridership was up 38% at about 27,000 per day, while weekend passenger counts jumped 169% on Saturdays from October 2023 and Sunday ridership was up 142%. “It is immensely gratifying to see our riders embrace our new service on this scale,” said Executive Director Michelle Bouchard.

No doubt some people came out just to see what the new service is like, especially on the weekends, but the schedule changes that accompanied electrification certainly have the ability to entice commuters to turn (or return) to rail. With the faster acceleration possible with electric equipment, a typical local-train schedule was cut from 99 to 77 minutes; a typical limited-stop express train went from 66 to 59 minutes, even while increasing stops from seven to 10. And, because of the lower operating costs that come with electrification, overall service was boosted by 20%, doubling weekend frequencies (from hourly to every 30 minutes) and boosting weekday peak-period trains from five to six an hour. With electrification, Caltrain also moved to “memory schedules,” meaning train times are consistent every hour at each station.

Service is provided with 19 seven-car bilevel Stadler KISS trainsets (KISS is an abbreviation for the German “Komfortabler Innovater Spurstarker S-Bahn zug,” or “Comfortable, Innovative, Fast-moving S-Bahn train,” S-Bahn being the German term for commuter rail). Capable of 110 mph, the rolling stock built in Salt Lake City was initially ordered as six-car trains but that was expanded to increase capacity.

The road to electrification was long. Discussions on electrifying the 51-mile corridor began as early as 1976, but groundbreaking on the $2.44 billion project didn’t come until July 2017. Like most projects that spanned the COVID-19 pandemic, this one fell behind schedule — it was originally projected to be completed in 2021 — and costs rose by about $462 million over its construction. But it was a fairly massive undertaking, requiring more than 2,500 catenary support polls for the 25 kV system; about 140 miles of overhead wire; 10 new power substations; and signaling upgrades at 31 grade crossings, among other infrastructure work. And it’s not as if the U.S. regularly tackles electrification projects; the last was the wiring of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and New Haven, Conn., to provide a completely electrified Boston-Washington route. Other than that, electrification projects since the 1920s have largely been confined to new light rail systems, although the Denver-area Regional Transportation District opened 30 miles of electrified commuter rail in 2016.

As for those environmental benefits, Caltrain says they will be considerable, eliminating 2.09 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of removing 55,000 cars from the road. Among other improvements: significant noise reduction.

The agency has an eventual but unfunded goal of extending electrification south from San Jose by 2040; in the interim, it has ordered a battery-electric trainset from Stadler to test that equipment as a potential replacement for diesel operation.

The diesel-powered equipment displaced by electrification is slated to live on; in a deal announced in November — and involving the U.S. departments of State and Commerce — 19 locomotives and 90 gallery commuter cars will be sent to Lima, Peru, to launch a new commuter service there. That agreement also required the approval of the Bay Area Air Quality Management district, because some state and federal environmental funding for the electrification project would normally require the diesels to be scrapped, or at least permanently disabled. But while the diesels may no longer be welcome in California, they are a potential environmental benefit for the traffic-choked Peruvian capital, where it can take 2 hours to drive the 25 miles of the planned commuter rail route.