On October 25, Dallas Area Rapid Transit opened the new Silver Line regional rail, connecting Plano and DFW via the 26-mile historic Cotton Belt right of way. This crosstown route does not serve Downtown Dallas but provides service to cities like Addison, which previously lacked rail access, and connects others along a more circumferential path.
Unlike the rest of DART’s rail lines, the Silver Line uses Stadler FLIRT diesel multiple units, similar to those on TEXRail and the Arrow Line in San Bernardino. The Silver Line shares tracks and connects with TEXRail at DFW. These diesel multiple units meet FRA alternative compliance standards and feature level boarding at all doors.
Service will run every 30 minutes during weekday peak hours and hourly during off-peak times and on weekends. Service will be free until November 8, after which regular fares will apply.
As part of the planned service changes on August 24, TriMet will close the Skidmore Fountain MAX Station in Downtown Portland. This closure follows other downtown station closures that began in 2020, including Kings Hill/SW Salmon, Mall/SW 4th Ave, and Mall/SW 5th Ave stations. The primary reasons for the closure are low ridership and the need to speed up service through downtown. The closure will also be necessary during the replacement construction of the Burnside Bridge, now planned to begin in 2028.
On July 1st, Santa Maria Regional Transit will operate bus service to, from, and within the City of Guadalupe. Previously, the city funded the service separately and it was operated by a contractor. The cities hope the consolidation will improve service for riders.
Last month, with funding from the Nevada Department of Transportation, Greyhound added a route between Reno and Salt Lake City along the I-80 corridor. Greyhound had provided service on this corridor before 2018 but discontinued it due to low ridership. At that time, Greyhound had a through-ticket arrangement with Amtrak, which offers competing service on the California Zephyr route. However, this route does not stop at all the same towns because of its different alignment from the highway. In 2022, Salt Lake Express provided service on the same corridor with a state subsidy but had disputes with Nevada’s authority overseeing motorcoach carriers.
The new connection allows bus-only trips from the Bay Area to Midwest locations like Chicago without passing through Los Angeles. The new trips are overnight both ways, departing Reno and Salt Lake City during the 8pm hour and arriving during the 7am hour in Salt Lake City and 5am hour in Reno. The eastbound California Zephyr is currently scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City around 3am.
Meanwhile, Greyhound added a roundtrip from Sacramento to Seattle, complementing an existing roundtrip through Flixbus. For some time, Greyhound’s owner, Flix Mobility, realigned services and replaced blue Greyhound buses in the Pacific Northwest with green Flixbus, except for trips between Seattle and Vancouver BC and contracted Travel Washington routes, which continue to operate with blue Greyhound buses.
Looking back, 2024 has been a year of significant change. The “face” of both BART and Caltrain transformed as BART fully retired its two-door legacy fleet, and Caltrain introduced electric trainsets while retiring its gallery cars. In Seattle, the Link system added a new line connecting Redmond and Bellevue and expanded northward from Northgate to Lynnwood, replacing many express buses serving Seattle from Snohomish County. In Los Angeles, Metro recently introduced new metro cars made by CRRC for the B and D lines, as the first phase of D line extensions further west is nearly complete. Many transit agencies saw improved ridership as more workers returned to the office, and more services were restored as additional transit workers were hired.
BART formally retired its legacy rail car in 2024, which served as BART’s icon for decades.
Next year, both Muni and BART will raise fares, and the tolls for Bay Area Toll Authority bridges will increase by $1. BART will begin installing the CBTC system, which will enhance capacity but requires service adjustments. As a result, Millbrae riders will need to transfer between trains at SFO in the evening. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will open Petaluma North Station soon after the new year and extend northward to Windsor sometime in 2025.
In Sacramento, the SmaRT Ride microtransit will be transformed into a different program with fewer vehicles, a reduced budget, and limited eligibility.
In Seattle, Link Line 2 is expected to connect South Bellevue to Seattle across Lake Washington once the I-90 track re-work, which delayed the project, is complete.
LA Metro is also expected to open the LAX Metro Center and the first phase of the D Line extension to Wilshire/La Cienega sometime next year. The D Line extension is significant due to the high bus ridership on Wilshire and the speed improvements a new subway line will bring.
However, 2025 is worrisome, given the increasingly chaotic political climate and the hostility towards transit among elected and unelected decision-makers. Bay Area transit agencies will also face a fiscal cliff as ridership remains slow to return and one-time pandemic-era grants run out. Over the last few decades, Bay Area transit have seen fiscal cliffs with economic recessions (drop in tax revenues, and falling ridership with higher unemployment), but no recession has such a deep and lasting impact on transit service as COVID. Development in autonomous vehicles, backed by wealthy Silicon Valley tech bros, could impact the public’s attitude towards transit. Even if the technology is perfected, these vehicles can’t assist senior and disabled riders and do little to address traffic congestion due to the inefficiency of single-occupancy vehicles.
