Our 3rd party permitting system requires bilateral contracts - rather than global administrative processes. In the rare instance when a transit agency stands on its rights and tries to enforce an agreement with a local government, a judge decides to side with discretionary veto points.

3rd party permitting allows big corporations and tiny cities to hold up publicly approved transit projects and extract pricey concessions. To run more trains and electrify rail, we need to fix this.

In total, the amount of transit money north LA county is giving away to roads via "unmet needs" is exactly the size of Metrolink's operating deficit: $35 M. We could halt all service cuts if TDA didn't have this loophole. boardagendas.metro.net/board-report...

Santa Clarita and other areas served by the Antelope Valley Line are giving transit money to roads while capital projects to increase AVL service languish with partial funding. Why is this allowed?

June marked the end of Fiscal Year 2026, and we ended things with another record-breaking month. We saw post-pandemic highs across total monthly (nearly 1.3 million), average weekday (49,000), average Saturday and Sunday ridership. Thank you for riding with us! ✨👏🏼

Thrilled to be co-hosting this rally to prevent cuts to transit, affordable housing, clean air and clean water! Join us in Sacramento August, 10th!

📢 Join us August 10th for our Rally and Lobby Day in Sacramento to stop cuts to transit, affordable housing, clean air, and clean water! RSVP and more info here: actionnetwork.org/events/emerg... @seamlessbayareaca.bsky.social @streetsforallsf.org @streetsforall.org @movecalifornia.bsky.social

Imagine the ridership gains if bus-rail coordination was an actual priority for Metrolink! Imagine the further ridership gains SMART could have if it had the capacity to run 30 min service instead of hard-to-schedule 32 min frequencies!

Impressive continued growth of SMART ridership. A crazy fact just shared by the GM: SMART carried more riders last month than in *all of FY 2021*

Brighton to Roxford double track, a project that improves service and reduces VMT, is still mostly unfunded 2 years before its original completion date. Our patchwork of competitive grants is not working. #AgainstPatchworkFunding

Brighton to Roxford double track was supposed to be complete in 2025, but now won't be done until 2037. Balboa Double track won't finish until 2039. These SCORE projects needed for 30min service are now 10 years behind. Patchwork funding and patchwork governance are failing Metrolink riders.

Metro advancing Metrolink improvements even as they cut operations funding. This is a good project, but is there will to fund the service to justify the investment?

These past few months we've been monitoring the SB 1098/LOSSAN Working Group. Their report, developed in the dark by existing players, lacks the bold solutions needed to resolve SoCal's multiple rail crises. So we wrote our own Minority Report in response: 🧵 calelectricrail.org/the-sb-1098-...

Electrification of rail gets the goods.

Ridership on the Bay Area's Caltrain also continues rising in the wake of the route's electrification, with passenger counts up 15% compared to this time last year! Caltrain has taken more than 14M passengers over the last twelve months, the highest since 2019

Meanwhile Valley Rail South has been postponed due to funding and project delivery issues, Valley Link's timeline and route to reach Tracy is unknown, and ACE is still running just 4 trains a day with no plans for improvement. Skewed priorities!

We're laying track, we're putting up wires, let's go high speed rail!!!

The California High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors recently approved the Track & Systems Contract for the nation’s first true high‑speed rail system, marking the transition from major civil construction to railway installation! Learn more here: hsr.ca.gov/2026/06/01/n...

Rally and Lobby Day to Save Transit, Affordable Housing, Clean Air & Clean Water Programs throughout California. Sign up here: actionnetwork.org/events/emerg...

upgrading capitol corridor to caltrain's standards would be huge for decongesting i-80. highly support.

OC folks, what's it gonna take to recapture OCTA from the highways-only crowd? It's kind of wild how useless they are. In addition to letting metrolink languish in this plan, there's zero new rail proposed, and this is a *2050* LRP.

Capitol Corridor is working on its Vision Plan and wants your feedback! The new plan must include electrification (like the 2016 plan) and more Roseville-Davis regional service! #Valtrain Fill out the survey and attend the webinar on July 23rd www.capitolcorridor.org/vision-plan/

OCTA's draft Long Range Transportation Plan wants 2024 Metrolink service levels (<hourly) *in 2050* - ignoring Metrolink's service development plan which calls for hourly OCL service by 2029 and half-hourly by 2037, and the State Rail Plan which expects 15 minutes by 2050. OCTA is a rogue agency.

These past few months we've been monitoring the SB 1098/LOSSAN Working Group. Their report, developed in the dark by existing players, lacks the bold solutions needed to resolve SoCal's multiple rail crises. So we wrote our own Minority Report in response: 🧵 calelectricrail.org/the-sb-1098-...

Environmental organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Barstow Gateway mega-railyard due to air quality impacts and lack of electrification. "You’d be hard pressed to find a more suitable rail project to electrify today" - Yasmine Agelidis, @earthjustice.org earthjustice.org/press/2026/l...

Promising statement on CA high-speed rail from Becerra here. Looking forward to hearing more about how he would cut through high-speed rail bottlenecks as governor - we've got some ideas. 🧵 www.newsweek.com/california-e...

Illinois has adopted 5 year capital funding agreements, an international best practice that reduces costs and uncertainty. With CA's main rail capital grant program on the chopping block, it's time for the Golden State to fund projects smarter! www.rtachicago.org/blog/2026/02...

Illinois's governance reform sets service standards for Chicago transit. The state provides a minimum level of funding for everyone, then distributes bonus funding based on performance metrics. Service planning is done regionally. Could be California! www.rtachicago.org/blog/2026/01...

125 years ago. Get with the times, Caltrans. “Superpower” by Russell Gold @calelectricrail.org

Instead of spending $11B on a highway that will be underwater by the time it's complete, electrify and expand SMART!

From January through April 2026, Caltrain hit the 70% mark when it came to pre-COVID ridership recovery levels. 37,000 riders across BART, Caltrain, and VTA last World Cup weekend. Transit is back. https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/bart-station-muni-caltrain-transit-22310378.php

Many good ideas on how to plan, fund and deliver better, more cost-effective and timely transit projects: ifp.org/transit-abun...

CPE's transit program is on a roll! Here's @jmooreotto.bsky.social featured in IFP's transit abundance playbook with a proposal near and dear to my heart: You can't do long-term capital planning with capricious grant funding! ifp.org/loans-can-st...

Permitting allows utilities and local govs to delay and extract pricey concessions from projects like CAHSR. We need standardized, time-bound, and transparent administrative processes to deal with utility and other 3rd party permits, like the Italian Conference of Services: ifp.org/transit-proj...

My colleague @jmooreotto.bsky.social is in @ifp.bsky.social’s Transit Cost Playbook. He argues for replacing discretionary grant financing for transit projects with federal loans! The current regime shreds state planning capacity due to intermittent and capricious funding. ifp.org/loans-can-st...

‼️🚌Join us for a virtual meeting on Thursday, June 25th, from 6:30-7:30pm to learn about what's next with the regional measure. RSVP HERE: actionnetwork.org/events/whats... , or link in bio!

Legislators are working on the budget right now. They may be wondering why we don't seem to be getting results from our transit spending. Well, they have the power to fix this. Time to step up.

There’s a wide open lane for the legislature and governor to do something about urban transit costs. Current reforms are typically limited to project specific relief for CEQA or procurement flexibility. Not the broad permitting reform or state capacity necessary to actually move the needle.

OCTA and Metro think that Metrolink is inefficient - but their proposed cuts make efficiency worse. We can get a better value with electrification, all day service, and bringing project delivery in-house- but Metrolink needs money to roll those out. Arbitrary cuts are penny wise and pound foolish.

At Metrolink budget and finance committee just now, Ara Najarian conveying sentiment from Metro (WHO ARE CUTTING $5M/YEAR IN FUNDING) that they are upset that Metrolink publicized potential service cuts and wishes they had kept it under wraps. Unbelievable contempt for transparency.

california high speed rail is literally the best example of the state not giving its biggest projects enough state capacity

South Shore Line #803 street-running through Michigan City, IN. January 27, 1964. Marty Bernard photo. #trains #history #photography #orange #electric #60s #1960s #michigan #michigancity #indiana #chicago #southshore #urbanism #mixeduse #awesome #littlejoe #GE

Happy Pride! Electric rail is for everyone. 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

With CARB's recent decision to defund TIRCP to subsidize Big Oil, it's time to re-up why the current system isn't working. Competitive grant programs that salami slice funding make projects cost more. Time to try something new: multi-year investment frameworks. bsky.app/profile/cale...

Wabtec makes a battery switcher. But BNSF has refused to commit to purchasing even one at their massive planned rail facility in Barstow, which moved forward last week. www.erienewsnow.com/news/local/w...

Senators @scottwiener.bsky.social @jessearreguin.bsky.social Blakespeare and @asmmarkgonzalez.bsky.social are tired of having to save the Governor from his own budget proposals every year. cal.streetsblog.org/2026/06/10/l...

"That [low reliability] is just how the system works" says a board member of the agency whose inaction closed the LOSSAN corridor for more than a year, slow-walked the Serra Siding (bottleneck for all rail travel between LA and San Diego, and forced a state takeover of a resiliency study.

we need to break the idea. that the commute is what transit it for

Several commentators asked OCTA to cancel a $19M hydrogen bus refueling project to fund Metrolink. OCTA staff replied that they can't because it's funded by grants - but that's a lie. (also, why are we rebuilding a 5 year old H2 facility for $19M? almost like it's an unreliable technology.)

Hennessey: "As far as we know, we could be over-funding them right now" No, Metrolink has a $30M budget deficit. That board members making funding decisions don't understand (or don't believe) this is a catastrophic breakdown of Metrolink's governance. youtu.be/rWCWy4KKS2I?...