The Coast Rail Coordinating Council is a multi-agency advisory and planning organization focused on improving the rail corridor between Los Angeles and the San Francisco bay area along the California Central Coast. Members of Council include all regional transportation planning agencies along the Central Coast – all of which have a strong interest in improving rail service and the rail infrastructure along the Central Coast’s portion of the California Coast Passenger Rail Corridor.
On June 19, the working group held a meeting to discuss the following issues:
- Legislative issues: a curtailed legislative session limits the number of bills moving forward.
- COVID-19 impacts on rail service at San Luis Obispo: they now have only one round trip southward on the Pacific Surfliner, which experienced a 97% ridership loss in the spring due to the pandemic.
- Caltrans priorities:
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Focusing the intercity rail budget on essential services and emergency preparedness/ pandemic response;
- Planning has begun for the next rail plan due March 2022;
- Federal funding for rail & bus connections;
- The California Integrated Travel Project (CAL-ITP) touchless payment system is now gearing up for demo projects and will hold a virtual event mid-September; and
- Positive Train Control (PTC) project is pending discussions with Union Pacific railroad.
On July 17, the CRCC Policy group held a meeting to discuss the status of the service implementation plan and the passenger rail improvement study for the central coast rail corridor. The agenda is online as a web attachment.
Policy Committee members and staff will provide a verbal update at the meeting.