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.
Staff working on Link21, a project to build a second underground rail link between San Francisco and Oakland, recently recommended building a connection for standard gauge trains, rather than for broad gauge BART trains.
The staff’s primary rationale is that a standard gauge tunnel would better connect various regional, intercity, and future high-speed rail services in Northern California, as all except BART operate on standard gauge tracks. The standard gauge tunnel would accommodate multiple operators, similar to the rail infrastructures in New York and other northeastern cities, serving Amtrak and numerous regional rail agencies. In the urban core, current lines with less frequent intercity service could be enhanced by adding frequent metro service to Downtown San Francisco. Additionally, the standard gauge tunnel aligns better with the upcoming State Rail Plan, which calls for more high-capacity interregional passenger service.
Source: Link21
I believe the recommendation is sound. Considering the funding, planning, and construction difficulties in recent decades, I think it’s important for a rail vision like Link21 to break down into smaller components with independent utility to have the best chance of being implemented. For over four decades, transit activists on the San Francisco Peninsula have advocated for an electrified Caltrain serving downtown San Francisco. While the vision is yet to be fully realized, many components, such as electrification, are complete.
With the standard gauge concept, this project would extend Caltrain from the planned terminal at Salesforce Transit Center to the East Bay. Another project already covers the rail extension from the current 4th & King to Salesforce Transit Center, with much of the environmental planning work done. A completed station in downtown San Francisco would make the new transbay rail tunnel less costly and complicated. Trains from the East Bay could continue through San Francisco and down the Peninsula without additional lines.
With a broad gauge link, new subways and tunnels would be necessary in San Francisco. Although many people desire a subway down Geary Boulevard (as originally envisioned in the 1950s when the city removed the still productive B-Geary surface streetcars), that is a mega project on its own and unlikely to be built before or concurrently with the second crossing. I believe this is the biggest disadvantage with going broad gauge. With or without the Geary subway, there’s still the issue of a train storage or maintenance facility on the west side of the Bay. When BART originally opened in 1974 in San Francisco, it lacked a train storage or maintenance facility on the San Francisco Peninsula, which hampered service frequency and reliability.
In the East Bay, a key benefit of a broad gauge crossing is that existing BART branches have the capacity for increased service. However, simply adding more service to current stops does not expand the “transit-shed” in the East Bay and may actually increase parking and car traffic strain, which was already high pre-COVID, at those stops. In contrast, under the standard gauge scenario, additional tracks and possibly electrification would be necessary in the East Bay on existing standard gauge passenger lines. These parallel lines, such as the Coast Line planned under the South Bay Connect project, are located far enough from existing BART lines to provide a new “transit-shed” without adding pressure to existing BART stops.
Some argued that a broad gauge is better for the second crossing because it can support new urban metro (BART) lines in San Francisco and the East Bay. However, I believe a standard gauge crossing is equally suitable for supporting new metro lines. In an ideal scenario, with funding and strong political support, new subway lines down Geary in San Francisco or MacArthur in Oakland could be built with standard gauge and 25kV overhead electrification, using the second rail crossing. BART could even build and operate these lines, like it does with eBART. There are many examples of urban metro lines powered by 25kV overhead wires in Asia. Even in the United States, Denver RTD runs metro-style electrified classic FRA-compliant trains between the Denver Airport and downtown every 15 minutes.
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Thinking even long term, a standard gauge crossing and subway could facilitate a rail connection to the North Bay—something the original BART planners envisioned but never delivered. The North Bay has the standard gauge SMART serving as its rail backbone that could be extended to San Francisco.
For a modest initial project of just building a second link from Salesforce Transit Center to Oakland, a well-located station in Oakland can ensure success of the second tunnel by facilitating easy transfers between Caltrain and BART. There’s a concept of converting the I-980 freeway into a surface boulevard and using the underground space for a new rail station. Broad gauge BART would have new tunnels to serve this station, not only to connect with Caltrain but also to provide additional track capacity in Oakland for more service on the outer branches, though without crossing the Bay. The I-980 space can also provide storage for Caltrain in the East Bay. Additional track improvements needed to extend metro service further into the East Bay can be implemented separately.
Source: Connectoakland.org
While the concept of a standard gauge second crossing doesn’t address whether transit agencies should merge, it doesn’t rule it out. In many ways, a merger of BART and Caltrain could offer significant benefits, such as better service coordination, simpler fares, seamless transfers, and a unified regional identity.
Considering the upcoming political environment, the second rail crossing is still decades away. Even the project to extend Caltrain from 4th & King to Salesforce Transit Center is at risk. Proposing to build the tunnel with standard gauge should improve the project’s position with the state and future federal government. The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a cabinet-level agency overseeing departments like the DMV, Caltrans, and the High-Speed Rail Authority, is already interested in taking a leadership role in this project due to its statewide significance. Although it seems like a long shot, by planning now, cities can coordinate land use and secure future right of ways by ensuring no major structures are built that would block the tunnel.
In late September, Caltrain introduced all-electric service between San Francisco and San Jose with new Stadler-built electric multiple units. The new trains reduced travel time, resulting in a significant boost in ridership post-pandemic. During the switchover, Caltrain retired its gallery cars and 1980s-built F40 locomotives. Caltrain will keep Bombardier cars and newer diesel locomotives to support Gilroy service.
The gallery cars were introduced in 1985 when Caltrans, the state department of transportation, was overseeing the service. These stainless steel cars replaced the previous Southern Pacific-owned rolling stock, which included 1950s gallery cars and 1920s single-deck cars. The new gallery cars enabled push-pull operation, allowing the train engineer to operate from a cab car so trains could change direction without moving the locomotive. With the old SP equipment, locomotives always led the train, requiring larger terminals and resulting in infrequent off-peak service due to the time-consuming need to reposition. At the time, Caltrans was considering either extending Caltrain to the Transbay Terminal or changing the route to terminate at Daly City BART, neither of which was expected to have as large a terminal as 4th & King Street.
Southern Pacific era rolling stock. Source: Roger Puta collection from Wikipedia Commons
Throughout nearly 40 years on Caltrain, there have been major changes in operations and modifications to the rolling stock. Seats have been gradually removed in cab cars and other trailer cars to install bike racks as demand for bike capacity grew (up to 80 bike spots per gallery trainset). Seats have also been removed in the second car (from the north) to accommodate riders in wheelchairs. The contract operator changed from SP to Amtrak, and later from Amtrak to TransitAmerica/Herzog. Although the interior design of the gallery cars allows conductors to see all passengers on both levels in one pass-through to facilitate ticket sales, Caltrain discontinued onboard ticket sales in 2003.
Original gallery car with orange and brown interior and logo. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Dennis Yang
In 1998, Caltrain ordered 20 additional gallery cars equipped with onboard wheelchair lifts and accessible restrooms. Some rail advocates believed Caltrain should have ordered cars of a different design, but only one builder submitted a bid. In 2000, Caltrain sent the original gallery cars for a mid-life rehab, which modernized the interior and replaced the seats.
Of the 1980s F40 locomotives, none originally had a separate head-end power engine for providing electrical power to passenger cars. All of them operated off the main engine, which ran at a fixed RPM whether the train was accelerating or idling. As a result, they were always loud. During the 2000 mid-life rehab, Caltrain upgraded the brakes on all the original locomotives and added a separate engine to 15 of the 20 locomotives. These modified locomotives have a slightly longer body and significantly reduced noise.
New F40 and gallery cars. Roger Puta Collection. From Wikimedia Commons
After SamTrans hired Mike Scanlon as the agency’s general manager (and Caltrain’s executive director) in 1999, Caltrain purchased Bombardier cars for its Baby Bullet program. The decision was partly due to availability and also because these cars offered more efficient operations with lower floors and two doors. The agency stopped acquiring gallery cars since then.
I’ve ridden the gallery cars for more than a quarter of a century. I can navigate them by muscle memory, and I remember the door closing chime. Unfortunately, the gallery cars at Caltrain always felt bumpy to ride. Initially, the agency blamed the jointed rails throughout the corridor, but the improvement was only marginal when the rails were replaced. The Bombardier cars and the new Stadler cars feel much better. However, those gallery cars had an advantage: they allowed riders to stand at the front and look out the window at the track ahead. That’s how many of those Caltrain cab view videos were made.
I had the opportunity to ride on the last revenue gallery + F40 train out of San Francisco. On September 20, I had an engagement in the city and wasn’t planning to take the so-called “official last train,” scheduled to depart around 7:30 p.m. Instead, I took the midnight train, which might have had Bombardier cars. However, that last train featured an F40 hauling gallery cars, so I got onboard along with others leaving a Green Day concert at Oracle Park.
One benefit of the F40 + gallery trainsets is that these trains enable a “quick build” of a passenger line. Stations can be constructed with simple, low-level asphalt platforms. This type of equipment allowed for experiments such as “CalTrain,” which operated between Oxnard and Los Angeles for six months in 1982, many years before Metrolink. Nowadays, due to corporate consolidation in the railroad industry along with safety and accessibility concerns, new commuter railroads are much more costly to start in the United States. New requirements include PTC and high platforms for level boarding, in addition to other demands imposed by host railroads, such as dedicated tracks. However, that quick build could happen in Peru.
These retired F40 locomotives, originally destined to be scrapped, await a second life in Peru.
The gallery cars and F40 locomotives were iconic for Caltrain, serving many memorable moments in the Bay Area, such as the Giants winning three World Series. I’m unsure if I would travel to Peru to ride on a gallery car again, but plenty are still in operation on Chicago’s Metra.
It has been over a month since Caltrain implemented all-electrified service between San Francisco and San Jose. After the first weekend of free service with various celebratory events along the line, weekday service had a rough start during the first two weeks, with significant interruptions causing delays of up to an hour.
In the first Caltrain Citizens Advisory Committee meeting after full electrification on October 16, John Hogan, Caltrain’s Chief Operating Officer, briefed the committee members on the various challenges the agency faced and what it is working on to improve on-time performance.
This weekend (September 21), Caltrain will introduce all-electric service between San Francisco and San Jose. Along with the new electric trainsets, a new schedule will be implemented to leverage the improved acceleration of the new trains. The new schedules will offer faster and more frequent service on weekdays and weekends. Caltrain began a soft launch of the electric service on August 10, gradually rolling out new trainsets operating under the current diesel-based schedule.
