Metrolink has released a menu of options to deal with the budget deficit. They include: - no weekend service - lower peak frequency - Fewer midday and late-night trains.  - Shortened lines in addition to fare increases. Public hearings on May 13th and 14th! metrolinktrains.com/about/board-...

I want to talk about Metro’s elephant-in-the-room project, the E Line’s Eastside Extension. I offhandedly opine in videos a lot that I don’t know how they expect this thing to get funded and built, but I want to explain a little bit more about why. The TL;DR is essentially - this is a bad project-

OC politicians are repeating a narrative that because Metrolink ridership recovery is slightly below projections (currently at 58% of pre-pandemic), it's a failing waste of money that should be disinvested from. Here's why they're wrong, and why cutting support by 10% is not a smart move: 🧵

OCTA and Metro cutting Metrolink funding for regional rail service (all-day, bi-directional service) to return to a commuter-focused schedule is a bad idea generally. It seems especially bad just before the World Cup and Olympics.

Caltrans is gearing up to drop 10s of millions of dollars into an interchange project for two highways that are immediately adjacent to America's 2nd busiest Amtrak line, as well as the Coaster and Sprinter commuter rail services. engage.dot.ca.gov/11-07890#tab...

Caltrans and county transportation authorities need to be banned from highway expansion They are making arguments like it’s 1950 and we don’t know the impact of continued highway expansion

Creating a revolving loan fund for mixed-income housing then adding unnecessary complexity by mandating banks act as middle men for the transactions to code it as “free market solution” agenda is conservative everything bagel-ism. www.remappingdebate.org/article/revo...

Blocking this double track project never made sense as it results in freight trains idling next to the front entrance but BNSF didn’t care much as funding ran out. 800m now 1B+ in extra cost added to CAHSR was always an insane deal to make but I suspect Newsom was behind the scenes

Last year, a CA state legislator passed a law to exempt the widening of a highway she drives on from being subject to the Endangered Species Act and there was little to zero press coverage.

CARB has proposed massive a giveaway to oil companies, the MDI, that would increase pollution while defunding Cap-and-Invest transit $$ (and housing, clean water, etc) and jeopardize High-Speed Rail's $1B funding guarantee amidst an energy crisis. But a group of legislators are pushing back!

Local control of regional infrastructure is undemocratic! A board appointed by the governor would be more democratic - the governor has an incentive to care about my opinion and vote in a way the city council of Dana Point does not.

Metrolink is permanently cutting service originally planed to be temporary given their funding challenges tied direct to member agencies like OCTA and LA metro cutting funding as costs rise The state needs to step in and substantially fund regional and intercity rail service youtu.be/QIFzCjI7vPQ?...

Local parochial interests are killing the US's 2nd largest city's regional rail system and nobody cares

Here is one concept with a pair of services that gives the core LA-Bay market 2 direct options. North of Oakland is likely the tighter bottleneck than to San Diego

Sub-regional network plans aggregating into a regional transit network plan... great idea. mtc.legistar.com/LegislationD...

We’re at the Caltrain Electrification: Lessons from a Pioneering Commuter Rail Upgrade panel at S.F. Climate Week. 🧵

We're nowhere near sufficiently freaked out by converging crises of 1) aging boomer population that is 2) most suburban cohort in human history while 3) living in areas at highest risk of climate disaster and 4) fighting all efforts at infill housing/transit. It's worse than you think it is, folks.

I will never ever give Metro LA any credit for improving public transit when they're still trying to bulldoze my neighborhood. la.streetsblog.org/2026/04/20/m...

ever wonder why your bus is waiting for a green light? excited to share a big work project milestone (and kudos to the team who delivered this) - the first ever California Open Transit Signal Priority Metrics, a key rulebook on how to evaluate the operational performance dot.ca.gov/cal-itp/tsp-...

I’m reminded as I wait for my daily transbay bus just how painfully limited the amount of transit going across Dumbarton and 0 across San Mateo No one wants to fund it because it’s cross country and there isn’t enough RM2/3 money for operations. The current regional measure is unlikely to change it

Personally I can't stand that the man has shut down and sidelined the good consultant trying to fix SVBARTII, Gall Zeidler

"I've been radicalized on bicycle and pedestrian safety." CA Assemblymember @buffywicks.bsky.social at yesterday's transportation committee. You love to hear it! 👏🏻👏🏻

There’s no strong data to support their position and they’ve ran out of just trust us as their arguments get weaker. I was hoping for 6 stories and expecting 5, looks like we will get 4.

Meanwhile, Metro wants cut $5M from Metrolink operations, which will lead to service cuts that put more cars onto these freeways. Priorities...

Add "farmers in the American West whose farms are only viable because they are given incredibly scarce water resources for 5 cents on the dollar" to the car dealers and realtors — destructive, unproductive conservative groups that we need to reduce the influence of when we're back in power.

Another senseless traffic death. Paralympics champion Dory Selinger, who lost a leg in 1993 when a group he was riding with struck intentionally by a driver, was killed yesterday while riding his bike. www.chron.com/sports/artic...

Appreciate this discussion of NFPA 130 here. The deferral to the fire service in each jurisdiction creates really bad incentives for cost control and risk.

How California transit operators and institutions understand transit

Happy tax day! Shout out to taxes, the cornerstone of a functional and equitable society, and in particular the often-maligned but extremely important property and gas taxes.

I really wish California in 1999 had been smarter and ordered 50 not 10 railcars for the Surfliner. 15 6 car sets would have increased capacity per trainset plus more sets. C21 flopping has hamstrung service Spirt of California restoration + Coast Daylight should have been late 90s projects

If I understand correctly, CARB is no longer cutting any allowances from cap-and-invest in response to oil industry lobbying. This jeopardizes the future of CA High Speed Rail, which relies heavily on private financing backed by a $1B/yr guarantee from cap-and-invest, which is unlikely to happen.

The Manufacturing Decarbonization Incentive, or "Build Up California Reserve Account," as they want us to refer to it, would now receive the entirety of the 118M allowances previously slated for removal. A whole bunch of industry facilities are newly eligible fore these funds, too. Strikethroughs:

Centralized state capacity, multi-year funding framework, and ‘project sponsorship’ help keep Sweden's transit capital costs low and build their excellent, high-ridership transit services. California should look to Sweden’s example as it considers strategies to reform project delivery.

I saw what might be the silliest and just wrong reason why US trains can’t go faster. Supposedly Feds won’t allow above 79mph on wood ties. Completely ignores the fact there’s currently 90mph if not faster on wood and the current regs 213.335 says if you want to run wood ties above 110mph (Class 7)

The FY27 deficit is $376M. BART is taking a number of actions to reduce the shortfall, including more expense reductions, but will need help to completely close the gap. Read more about BART’s fiscal cliff: bart.gov/fiscalcliff.

There’s a 1956 study of using the Sacramento Northern route for commuter service between Oakland and Concord by AC transit. I assume it’s never been digitized and sitting in some archive box at best

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! ⚡⚡⚡https://www.caltrain.com/about-caltrain/statistics-reports/ridership

There’s also long delays on the fit up equipment which is everything that goes inside once the white space is complete I know one UPS manufacture went we are importing this many units into the US this year if you want one get your name down and a partial if not full payment.

There’s also long delays on the fit up equipment which is everything that goes inside once the white space is complete I know one UPS manufacture went we are importing this many units into the US this year if you want one get your name down and a partial if not full payment.

State of good repair should be a basic formula funding while the state provides rolling stock required to run the service level agreed to Really track ownership should be consolidated to the state

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.

Pro death, pro injury administration

Re Valley Link Phase 1A (11 miles from Dublin BART to Vasco Road freeway median battery EMUs at $2bn), there is no discussion of ridership projections but the Livermore mayor is selling it to DC as creating freight capacity on I-580. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

FSP money was applied for by CRCC to advance 4 projects Design & Construction: King City station and siding State of good repair Pre construction: Grover beach siding upgrades to provide a 4th Surfliner slot to SLO Watsonville Station Project development for a Cal Poly SLO station

FSP money was applied for by CRCC to advance 4 projects Design & Construction: King City station and siding State of good repair Pre construction: Grover beach siding upgrades to provide a 4th Surfliner slot to SLO Watsonville Station Project development for a Cal Poly SLO station

Governance reform for Metro and Metrolink now!

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??

RHNA is about a 2.3% growth rate. And we're failing terribly at that low minimum.