Caltrain on Monday outlined its preliminary vision for the next 20 years, highlighting longer trains and faster and more frequent service that would nearly triple its ridership. Ali Wolf reports.
Caltrain on Monday outlined its preliminary vision for the next 20 years, highlighting longer trains and faster and more frequent service that would nearly triple its ridership.
During a live YouTube town hall, the transit agency said peak hours would see eight trains in each direction per hour, with all day Baby Bullet express service every 15 minutes and increased off-peak and weekend services. Those improvements, Caltrain said, would increase ridership from 65,000 to about 180,000 a day.
The plan, which carries a price tag of $25 billion, envisions electrified service from Gilroy to San Francisco by 2022 and expansion of Caltrain's network, including an extension to the Salesforce Transit Center in downtown San Francisco and a potential renewed corridor across the Dumbarton Bridge, the agency said.
"How we hope to pay for that is through a number of resources including grant funding, hopefully a dedicated sales tax at some point," Caltrain spokeswoman Tasha Bartholomew said.
The draft plan will be discussed by Caltrain's board at its Aug. 1 meeting and could be adopted as early as October, the agency said.
For more information, including in-person meeting sites, visit Caltrain's Business Plan website.
