Caltrain celebrates installation of final foundation for electrification project

Stakeholders joined Caltrain to celebrate successfully completing all 3,092 foundations for the new overhead catenary system (OCS) that will support electrified Caltrain service.  

The 51-mile Caltrain Electrification project will be the first 25KV OCS system on the west coast and will provide power to the new state-of-the-art electric trains that will start arriving on the corridor in spring 2022. 

Caltrain began construction on the project in 2017 and the foundation phase of construction has been complex due to challenging and unknowable site conditions in a 150-year-old right of way, working during a pandemic and on an active railroad. Completion of the foundations represents a turning point for the Caltrain Electrification Project that reduces future project costs and risks. 

“Today marks a major achievement in the history of Caltrain,” said Caltrain Acting Executive Director Michelle Bouchard. “This final foundation marks a turning point in the electrification of this railroad towards a modern, efficient service that the people of the Bay Area deserve.” 

This is the first of several major project milestones this year. Within a couple of months, the OCS system in the southern segment of the project will be live with energy flowing into the system. An AEM7 electric locomotive will begin testing the OCS and by summer 2022, the entire 51-mile corridor will be electrified. The first high-performance electric trains will arrive in spring after completing 10 months of intensive testing at speeds up to 115 mph at the Transportation Technology Center national test track in Pueblo, Colo. While there are still difficult signal and system integration work ahead, the project is on track for a historic change and to be serving riders by 2024.   

“The Caltrain Board has talked about the Electrification foundations for years and it is nice to have closure and remove a significant risk from the project,” said Director Shamann Walton, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Caltrain Board member. “When completed in 2024, an electrified Caltrain will offer a much faster, more frequent and more reliable public transit option to connect San Francisco to the Peninsula and South Bay.” 

The project requires an additional $462 million over initial estimates. Caltrain is working with its funding partners, as well as its federal and state legislative delegations, to fill the funding gap. To date, Caltrain has received an additional $52.4 million from the federal government; has access to $150 million financing credit; and $60 million in Measure RR capital reserve towards the funding gap. 

The electrification of the Caltrain system will deliver major benefits to the communities that it serves. Electrification will reduce Caltrain’s greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate the particulate matter caused by the aging diesel engines. Electrified service will lay the foundation to meet the goal of tripling capacity by 2040, the equivalent of carrying 5.5 lanes to U.S. Highway 101.  

Service will become both more frequent and more comfortable, as state-of-the-art electric trains replace Caltrain’s current aging fleet. The project has also created thousands of jobs locally and throughout the country, both to electrify the corridor and to assemble the new trains, which include components from across the country. Finally, the infrastructure that is being installed will be compatible with future high-speed rail on the corridor.