Learn more on Monday! bsky.app/profile/cale...

Time for BNSF to electrify the Cajon Pass. As Narayan's paper shows, it's a win-win for freight companies and fenceline communities!

Techno-economics of low-carbon freight rail transportation in California Techno-economics of low-carbon freight rail transportation in California, Gopinathan, Narayan

I am so proud that my paper on rail freight decarbonization has been published!
I find that rail electrification is a very cost-effective way to reduce C emissions, and is as profitable if not more than using diesel.

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Metrolink, which is not electrified, is only up at 58%, and is facing service cuts and a fiscal crisis in part due to lower-than-projected ridership.

Caltrain ridership is now up to 75% of pre-pandemic! Weekend ridership is up to 160%, thanks to better service and faster rides due to electrification. Wires up! ⚡⚡⚡www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/statistic...

There's some discussion here @ctillier.bsky.social caltrain-hsr.blogspot.com/2019/07/emer...

I saw a mine that has an electric locomotive that charges the system on the way down to the processing plant and uses that stored energy to climb back up. That seems perfect for making the descent and climb from Barstow down to the ports and back

Against Patchwork Funding: How Multi-year Investment Frameworks Can Deliver Rail Faster and Cheaper – Californians for Electric Rail Against Patchwork Funding discusses the status quo for rail funding in California, best practices in Low and Medium Cost Countries (LMCCs) and ways California could re-orient its funding practices to better implement the State Rail Plan.

For more on why this is a terrible idea that will increase the very administrative burdens agencies claim concern over, read our Against Patchwork Funding paper: calelectricrail.org/against-patc...

Behind closed doors at the SB 1098 working group, agencies want to expand our failing competitive grant programs to include state of good repair- further reducing capital investments' ability to achieve funding and subjecting basic maintenance to the same uncertainties.

BNSF BIG Project Learn how this project will impact you, your neighbors, our homes, and more Monday 13 April 2026 5:30-8 pm, 6:00-8:00 PM (Zoom) Register for address or Zoom link https://bit.ly/BIGZOOM

Join us near you. Food and Interpretation will be available. Locations in Barstow (bit.ly/bigbarstow), Jurupa Valley (bit.ly/BIGCCAEJ) Long Beach (bit.ly/BIGEYCEJ), Riverside (bit.ly/BIGSC), San Bernardino (pc4ej/org/event/bnsf-b-i-g-project/) Victorville (bit.ly/BIGCCAEJ) ZOOM bit.ly/BIGZOOM Monday 13 April 2026 5:30-8:00 PM, 6:00-8:00 PM (ZOOM)

Monday, April 13th at 5:30 PM: Learn more about the Barstow International Gateway - BNSF's massive rail yard proposed with 0 electrification!

Hear from coalition members across the SoCal Rail fenceline about BIG's impacts and why electric rail IS possible. Online or in person, multiple locations.

BNSF B.I.G. Project Event Registration / Registro para el Evento del Proyecto B.I.G. de BNSF Please join Communities for Electric Rail Only to learn more about the impacts of BNSF's Barstow International Gateway Project on local communities and the region. This event will be hybrid - please r...

Register here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Proyecto B.I.G. de BNSF Descubre como este proyecto te afectara a ti, a tus vecinos, a nuestros hogares y mucho mas. Lunes 13 abril 2026 5:30-8:0 PM, 6-8 pm (Zoom) registrese para obtener la dirrecion o el enlace de zoom. https;//bit.ly/BIGZOOM

Unete cerca de ti Habra comida e interpretacion disponible. Barstow - bit.ly/bigbarstow Jurupa Valley bit.ly/BIGCCAEJ Long Beach bit.ly/BIGEYCEJ Riverside bit.ly/BIGSC San Bernardino pc4ej.org/event/bnsf-b-i-g-project/ Zoom bit.ly/BIGZOOM Lunes 13 abril 2026 5:30-8:00 PM, 6:00-8:00 PM (ZOOM)

4/13, 5:30 PM: ¡Descubre más sobre el Barstow International Gateway, el gigantesco parque de maniobras ferroviario de BNSF que se propone construir sin electrificación alguna!

En línea o en persona, en varios lugares.

BNSF BIG Project Learn how this project will impact you, your neighbors, our homes, and more Monday 13 April 2026 5:30-8 pm, 6:00-8:00 PM (Zoom) Register for address or Zoom link https://bit.ly/BIGZOOM

Join us near you. Food and Interpretation will be available. Locations in Barstow (bit.ly/bigbarstow), Jurupa Valley (bit.ly/BIGCCAEJ) Long Beach (bit.ly/BIGEYCEJ), Riverside (bit.ly/BIGSC), San Bernardino (pc4ej/org/event/bnsf-b-i-g-project/) Victorville (bit.ly/BIGCCAEJ) ZOOM bit.ly/BIGZOOM Monday 13 April 2026 5:30-8:00 PM, 6:00-8:00 PM (ZOOM)

Monday, April 13th at 5:30 PM: Learn more about the Barstow International Gateway - BNSF's massive rail yard proposed with 0 electrification!

Hear from coalition members across the SoCal Rail fenceline about BIG's impacts and why electric rail IS possible. Online or in person, multiple locations.

Governance reform for Metro and Metrolink now!

Opinion: The fiscal cliff is real for transit — and it’s time to act! Across the state, transit agencies are warning that they are only months away from insolvency.

Metrolink has an imminent budget crisis. The Surfliner is falling into the ocean. Existing boards are more concerned about construction noise. Senator Blakespear, who wrote SB 1098, gets this, and we hope to see strong legislation from her office. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/03/20/o...

LOSSAN SB 1098 Working Group March 27, 2026 1:00 PM MEETING LOCATION: 550 South Main Street Main Conference Room Orange, CA 92863 Questions or inquiries about the meeting may be directed to the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) by contacting CalSTA at LOSSAN.SB1098@calsta.ca.gov, or by accessing the LOSSAN Working Group website located at https://calsta.ca.gov/subject-areas/lossan-working-group AGENDA 1) Welcome and Opening Remarks 2) Review Report Outline and Structure 3) Review Policy Area 1 (Strategies to increase rail service coordination and reduce disruptions or delays including, but not limited to, those caused by resiliency vulnerabilities, track closures, state of good repair, equipment, and staffing). 4) Review Policy Area 4 (Coordination of planning and project development through the federal Corridor Identification and Development Program) 5) Review Governing Board Approach for LOSSAN Agency, Metrolink and NCTD 6) Open Discussion 7) Next Steps

Meeting notes from March 27th meeting. 4. CIDP Coordination • Agreement to engage in good faith with Caltrans/CalSTA throughout the service development plan (SDP) • SDP requires strong local participation—caution that local buy-in may be difficult without this input. • Acknowledgement that this framework will be key to setting up future projects for federal funding opportunities. 5. Open Discussion and Next Steps • Next meeting to be held either at Los Angeles or San Diego. Date will tentatively be set for April 28th, to be finalized ASAP. • Presentation and materials will be distributed and posted to the CalSTA LOSSAN WG website shortly after this meeting Large amount of white space follow. Agenda items 5, 6, and 7 appear to have been combined in item 5 in the notes, with no substantive discussion about board structure or governance reform.

Governance structure was on the agenda (which again, wasn't posted publicly until a week after the meeting), but wasn't discussed at all. There's only one meeting left. Regional rail governance is broken. Will this task force avoid recommendations on its biggest issue? calsta.ca.gov/-/media/cals...

Alt text exceeds character limit. Read the whole thing in the link on the post. Excerpted below: [The LOSSAN rail corridor] is an opportunity for Southern California to have one of the best passenger rail networks in the country if adequate investments are made to run trains frequently and reliably all day. The Los Angeles to San Diego corridor has some of the strongest market potential for intercity rail in the United States. Reducing travel times between those cities could make trains the premiere travel option, reducing freeway traffic, and expanded service north of Los Angeles could improve connectivity with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. To further realize this potential, existing commuter rail run by Metrolink and NCTD must become frequent “regional” rail and connect seamlessly to intercity services like the Surfliner, with trains coming at least every 15 minutes. Slow and polluting diesel locomotives should be replaced with electric trains powered by overhead catenary wires, a proven solution for achieving zero-emissions operation.

Under the status quo, if every county but one delivers on the necessary projects in its borders to unlock great service, then the cumulative service benefits cannot be achieved. Most other countries do not manage rail infrastructure in this way. We shouldn’t do so in California. Remainder is excerped. Read the rest in the link in the associated post. Recommendations - The Organization. We want one major agency for all mainline passenger rail in SoCal - merging Metrolink, Coaster, and Surfliner management Recommendations - The Board. The Board needs to be independent and operate at arm's length from the political bodies that appoint Board Members to assure a regional perspective and isolation from the hyper-local pressure that stalls projects of regional importance. Recommendations - Funding. Need a dedicated region-wide funding source for capital and operations sources. Capital funds should be distributed via multi-year investment frameworks rather than spreading partial awards around

Description is truncated. Read the full text of the letter in the link in the post Recommendations - Structure: The new agency could be a new state agency led by a single county with other counties represented on the state agency’s board. Alternatively, it could be a stand-alone Joint Powers Authority with all county assets owned collectively. Another option would be to organize the agency like a terminal railroad with each county owning shares in the railroad. Regardless of specific structure, we caution against marble layer cake governance with too many veto actors whose incentives are often hyper-local rather than regional and in the best interests of rail governance. Recommendations – Management, Operations and Capital Projects. The new Southern California Regional Rail entity should be organized solely as a railroad, independent of member counties and large enough to support a robust management team responsible for a wide range of management and oversight. Needs to be large and independent enough to support its own in-house staff to deliver capital projects more cost effectively. Recommendations – Right-of-Way and Track. Some ROW will probably remain owned by Class Is, but larger consolidated structure will increase leverage with them. Ownership of public ROW should be consolidated into the new entity.

prime example of this, with overall ridership up 57% one year after electrification, the fastest growing transit agency in the country. Different models of ownership (such as publicly-owned electrification infrastructure over tracks that are privately-owned per the LA-Fullerton electrification proposed by CAHSR on the BNSF-owned section of LOSSAN) and capital project financing need to be explored. The substantial amount of public direct investment in freight rail track capacity already (on both public and privately owned track, such as port-area rail projects and adding a third track on the BNSF mainline through Hesperia) has provided substantial public benefits for Southern California. We thank you for your consideration and look forward to working with you on modernizing Southern California’s rail network. Sincerely, Adriana Rizzo Californians for Electric Rail Marc Vucevich Streets for All Leif Gensert Ride San Diego John Brock Remake Irvine Streets for Everyone Tristen Miller Strong Towns Santa Barbara

SoCal transit organizations are calling for a board that is responsive to rider needs and can deliver essential capital projects for Metrolink, Surfliner, and Coaster. But the working group, avoiding public oversight, didn't allow us in their meeting. calelectricrail.org/wp-content/u...

The SB 1098 working group was supposed to issue a report on LOSSAN governance reform by February. They didn't meet until after the deadline. Didn't post info for the March meeting until a week after it happened, preventing public input- and didn't discuss governance reform at all! What's going on??

CAHSR also has more in-house staff than Metro or VTA, which is a best practice proven to keep costs down.

CAHSR: $283M/mile
Metro A line to Montclair: $310 M/mil
Metro K line North: $1,510 M/mile
BART Silicon Valley II: $2,116 M/mile

Source?

A reminder that California spends ~$25 billion a year on roads alone….

So yeah, $140 billion for high-speed rail is a lot, but a good investment

Source: lao.ca.gov/Publications...

Is that $15B adjusted for inflation?
Madrid-Barcelona is shorter than CAHSR, was built 20 years ago, and was built in Spain, which has some of the lowest transit costs in the world. The Elkind figure includes other European countries with wages and more similar legal regimes to the US.

Getting Back on Track: Policy Solutions to Improve California Rail Transit Projects Author(s): Elkind, Ethan N., JD; Segal, Katie, MPP; Lamm, Ted, JD; Maroulis, Michael | Abstract: This report combines a cost baseline analysis with five case studies of California rail projects (four ...

This is the source. It is from 2022 and the cost of CAHSR has escalated since then. We are in a period of high construction costs inflation. escholarship.org/uc/item/3xq7...

🎵$140 billion I think that's fine, cuz 220 sure beats going 79!🎵
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fshm...

CAHSR is expensive, but its high price tag is largely a function of being a huge project. Per-mile costs compare favorably to other domestic transit projects - transit in the US costs 3x the global average to build!

High speed train traveling over a viaduct to maintain a straight path in rural China

Hakkoda high speed rail tunnel through Hakkoda mountains, Tohoku Shinkansen, Japan By Mccunicano - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94379648

Map of Tokaido Shinkansen, the world's first high speed rail line, which connects Tokyo, Nagoya, and Kyoto, but also includes stops in Mishima (population 100k) and Shin Fuji (portal to Mt. Fuji) and operates in both express and limited-stop service By Hisagi - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11406790

Photo of TGV high speed trains (operated by SNCF) taken at Gare de Lyon station in Paris, showing electric pantographs and multistory buildings in the background.

Reminder: around the world, high speed rail is:
✔️ electrified
✔️ grade separated
✔️ goes through, not over/around mountains
✔️ Stops in small cities & vacation destinations, not just mega-cities
✔️ terminates in urban centers
California High Speed Rail is being built to international best practices!

October 26: This Date in Los Angeles Transportation History 1992:  Metrolink begins operations. The system serves Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Diego Counties, connecting with Metro Rail, San Diego’s Coaster and Sprinter commuter rai…

When Metrolink first formed in 1992, SoCal Edison insisted that the system be fully electrified - but this was avoided due to the tight 2 year deadline to get service going. Hey Edison, want to bring back your proposal? #Electrolink metroprimaryresources.info/this-date-in...

Need this in SoCal for the Ports to Barstow ASAP.

C line extension to Norwalk Metrolink would solve that.