Capitol Corridor train reaches 1 million riders this year — a first since COVID pandemic
The Capitol Corridor, the Amtrak-Caltrans commuter train that whisks people across the marshlands between the Sacramento region and the Bay Area, transported its millionth passenger in the 2024 fiscal year, bringing the service levels more in line with pre-pandemic levels.
In 2019, 1.8 million passengers took the train to a destination between Auburn and San Jose. Since the pandemic hit in March 2020, ridership had not reached this milestone. The nadir was in the 2021 fiscal year, when the corridor saw fewer than 500,000 riders. In the 2023 fiscal year, the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority said in a release, more than 921,000 riders boarded the train.
The train helps riders avoid the traffic that can snarl drivers on Interstate 80. The joint powers authority gave some credit for its rebound to its “event trains” to Levi’s Stadium, which shuttled 13,000 people to San Francisco 49ers games and concerts. In July 2023, a memorable service shift occurred for the two days that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stopped at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. One conductor called it “the Swiftie train.”
In September 2023, the joint powers authority announced that it had won a $42.5 million grant from the Federal Railroad Administration for the first phase of adding a third track between Sacramento and Roseville. By 2029, the train is slated to add two additional round trips between the California capital and the Placer County hub.
In the same year, the California Transportation Commission awarded Caltrans $105 million toward a project that current estimates show costing $465 million to add 34 miles of new lanes to I-80. That project, which experts say will ultimately add more drivers to the freeway, plans to kick in $15 million over three years toward expanding Capitol Corridor service. With the additional money, Caltrans’ “vehicle mitigation plan” says, the corridor could add three trains between Sacramento and Martinez per day.
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 10:43 AM.
