Caltrans is initiating the next update to the State Rail Plan, which it will complete by June 2022, to meet requirements for prioritizing state and federal investment in passenger and freight rail. The plan will also focus on integration of the state’s regional and intercity passenger rail systems with the high speed rail plans.
The next Rail Plan will build on the previous plan, which developed an operator-neutral design for a world class state rail network based on pulse-hub scheduling concepts for operating all trains on regular, coordinated, clockface timetables. These service concepts are tailored to the State’s understanding of market potential for rail, known constraints, and service-based infrastructure requirements that allow services to be physically connected at “hub” stations and for seamless, timed transfers between services to occur where transfers are necessary or desirable to make connections between regional destinations across California.
The Rail Plan will identify a long-term vision to guide incremental service planning to support development of a statewide network, a 10-year service and capital plan representing phased goals for advancing the network design, and a 5-year capital program supporting near term funding and programming needs. Caltrans staff intends to craft the update to serve as an accessible and effective communication tool, including a streamlined, web-oriented format that can be updated more frequently than the 4-year requirement.
Integrated scheduling concepts are a component of the network integration initiatives described in the Rail Plan, which include development and implementation of the California Integrated Travel Program (CalITP) for integrated ticketing and modern fare collection mechanism supported by the State, as well as development of a statewide rail and bus equipment procurement program at Caltrans to strategically standardize long term equipment procurement around zero-emission technologies.
Caltrans is also partnering with High Speed Rail to develop a new and robust statewide ridership model for testing the network performance benefits of improvements on individual corridors and segments of the network, which it expects to be available for use in the Rail Plan update.
The updates to the current plan will focus on incorporating outputs of regional network studies based on the previous plan, such as TAMC’s network integration study for the Monterey Bay Area, as well as additional state-level service analysis needed to further develop and clarify infrastructure improvements tied to the 10-year interim service goals.
TAMC will want to assure that the state plan reflects our regional planning goals for increased passenger rail service to Monterey County, as reflected in the upcoming Rail Network Integration Study (next item on this agenda). Near-term service goals for our region include initiation of commuter-oriented service to Pajaro and Salinas. Mid-term goals include increase in service to Salinas, addition of a station at Castroville, addition of weekend service, and initiation of coast rail service from San Jose south to Soledad, King City, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo. Long-term service goals include further increase of the above services, as well as potential regional rail service between Santa Cruz and Monterey along the locally-owned branch lines.