Blog

Blockers and Builders of California High-Speed Rail

Who’s really behind CAHSR’s slow pace? As the 2026 California Governor’s primary wrapped up, Xavier Becerra, leading democratic candidate, when asked about California High-Speed Rail, stated that he would “scrap the current configuration… and make sure we finish… but we’ve got to do it on budget and on time.” For people familiar with infrastructure projects, much less CAHSR, completely re-designing a project environmentally cleared and planned is unlikely to decrease delays or cost overruns.  There Read more…

By calelectric, ago

The B.I.G. is a BIG deal for electric rail

BNSF is proposing to build a massive new rail facility in Barstow called the Barstow International Gateway (BIG). Separate from BNSF’s existing Barstow rail yard, the BIG would be an intermodal facility with rail-oriented warehouses and a solar field in addition to block-swapping and transloading facilities. It is projected to add up to 16,000 jobs – nearly doubling the population of Barstow – and once complete would be the largest rail facility in the US Read more…

By calelectric, ago

Regional Rail at Risk: Amidst Crisis, LOSSAN Working Group Asleep at the Wheel

In this series, we’ve explained Metrolink’s imminent budget crisis and its struggles to deliver comprehensive service improvements or capital modernization, all stemming from its broken governance. The imminent fiscal crisis provides urgency for reform. Metrolink is a regional system that will someday be part of the backbone of the state high-speed rail network. Its capital projects are primarily funded by the state. Fixing Metrolink’s dysfunction is in the state’s interest – and the state has Read more…

By calelectric, ago

Regional Rail at Risk: How Metrolink governance holds back capital modernization

In previous posts in this series, we discussed Metrolink’s imminent budget crisis and its struggles to maintain and expand service and ridership. These are exacerbated by its inability to deliver capital improvements, from basic maintenance to ambitious modernization programs like electrification.  Given the size and age of the network, there is a large backlog of state‑of‑good‑repair needs like track, signals, and bridges. Global best practice is to pair renewals like this with improvements to electronics Read more…

By calelectric, ago

Regional Rail in Crisis: How Metrolink’s governance holds back service, ridership, and growth

In the last installment of this series, we learned about how political choices by specific counties are driving a $30M shortfall that threatens service cuts. These cuts are part of broader flaws in Metrolink governance that have stymied a more ambitious vision since its founding, and threaten to curtail Metrolink’s most ambitious plans. But the current crisis offers an opportunity for change. Metrolink Service and Ridership Metrolink consists of a 547‑mile network across six counties. Read more…

By calelectric, ago

Metrolink is facing service cuts – Take Action Now!

Metrolink is in a dire situation in 2026. Dozens of trains across the system have been permanently cut due to equipment issues stemming from deferred maintenance – and more cuts could be coming in October thanks to a $30M operating budget deficit. While Metrolink had ambitious plans for service improvements, now riders could see mid-day, evening, and weekend trains eliminated instead. All while gas prices are skyrocketing and LA expects a massive influx of transit Read more…

By calelectric, ago

State Capacity for better projects: Coachella Valley Rail Case Study

A wide body of academic research suggests that bringing project delivery in-house results in more cost-effective transit capital projects. But how does this play out on a project-level? In this blog post we investigate how overreliance on consultants, coupled with lack of oversight,  is inflating costs and reducing scope and ambition to an alarming degree on Coachella Valley Rail. We find that: CV rail service planning and preliminary design costs 3-10x more than comparable, consultant-led Read more…

By calelectric, ago

ValTrain: Regional Rail for Sacramento

Why: The Greater Sacramento region needs fast, frequent and affordable ways to get around. For most people, driving on congested roads and freeways is the only viable way to travel. The state is spending millions to widen the Davis Causeway, which will do nothing to improve commutes. Existing transit options are too slow, infrequent and unreliable to compete with driving. Light rail expansions are expensive, not competitive with driving, and existing services are unavailable for Read more…

By calelectric, ago

2025 Year in Review

2025 has been a challenging year for many, dominated by the Trump administration’s attacks on civil rights, democracy, and the environment, from ICE kidnappings that suppressed transit ridership to the administration’s attacks on emissions regulations, transit funding, and renewable energy. But despite the difficult environment, Californians for Electric Rail has experienced a year of growth and success. We’ve seen a number of wins for electric rail this year: In January 2025, California released an excellent Read more…

By calelectric, ago

How the SB 125 Task Force can fix the SMART extension to Healdsburg

The SB 125 Transit Transformation Task Force (TTTF) is poised to adopt a final report on September 30, 2025. The State Legislature intended for the report from the TTTF to serve as the basis of legislative and administrative actions to reform transit to better achieve the state’s goals of reducing vehicle miles travelled and greenhouse gas emissions. There are many good recommendations in the draft final report around improving transit operations, fare products, coordination, cost Read more…

By calelectric, ago