CA: Caltrain ridership gets big uptick since electric trains introduced

The reliability of Caltrain’s new electric trains is drawing Bay Area commuters back to a service they dropped in droves during the pandemic.

Ruchi Malik was among the passengers who reduced trips on Caltrain between her home in San Mateo and work at UC San Francisco during the COVID days, concerned about safety and happy with the convenience of working from home. But she began riding more often since its new electric train service started last fall.

“Caltrain’s service has significantly improved,” said Malik, 40, a UCSF researcher. “The trains are generally on schedule, except for occasional disruptions due to weather or technical issues. Overall, it’s much more reliable than before.”

Caltrain completed its transition to a fully electric fleet from San Francisco to San Jose in September, and by the end of 2024, passengers had increased significantly. According to the Caltrain ridership report, the first three months of electric service experienced a 41% ridership increase over the same three months in 2023, from 416,000 to 588,000.

“Electric service is continuing to deliver on its promise,” said Michelle Bouchard, Caltrain’s executive director. “We are providing a fast, convenient, modern service, and many people who are tired of sitting in gridlock on 101 are getting onboard and experiencing the future of travel firsthand.”

By comparison, Bay Area Rapid Transit, the much larger and already all-electric intercity regional rail transit system connecting the East Bay, South Bay and San Francisco, increased by about 5.1%, from 16 million to 17 million riders in the same period from September to December 2024 compared to 2023.

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said BART’s ridership more closely mirrors office occupancy, and while most of the riders have returned, they’re taking fewer trips because they only go into the office two to three days each week.

“BART had roughly two times Caltrain’s boardings on an average weekday in 2024,” Trost said. “BART ridership has experienced significant growth since the early days of the pandemic. However, that growth began to slow down in mid-2023 as office occupancy remained unchanged. Caltrain serves a different area than BART does, so it is difficult to make comparisons about trends.”

Both rail transit systems continue to battle for riders since state and regional pandemic health orders shuttered offices and businesses five years ago and ushered in a wave of remote work that remains partially in place for many.

Caltrain’s 7.4 million riders in 2024 are down 63% from a 19.8 million peak in 2015. BART’s 50.7 million riders in 2024 are down 57% from the 117 million riders in 2019 before the pandemic.

A push on BART last year to tackle crime and cleanliness in its trains and stations — and to replace aging cars — helped lure riders back. According to year-end data for 2024, crime rates declined, while BART delivered around 3 million more trips than it carried in 2023.

“We are getting the word out about how we are only running new trains,” Trost said. “We have new fare gates, and we are also promoting how people can take BART on the weekends and for trips not related to a work commute.”

Because of its agreement with commercial rail company Union Pacific, which owns the tracks south of San Jose, Caltrain’s electrification project does not extend from San Jose to Gilroy. But for the more heavily travelled stretch down the Peninsula to Silicon Valley, electrification has brought a host of improvements.

“Since the Caltrain is electrified, we’ve really reinvented our service,” Caltrain spokesperson Dan Lieberman said. “It’s faster than ever before, running more service than ever before, and there’s more frequency, so there are fewer wait times.”

Lieberman said Caltrain’s ridership increased 48.9% year-over-year as of February 2025, with weekends seeing significant growth: 85% on Saturdays and 95% on Sundays, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

Lieberman said new onboard amenities, like Wi-Fi and electric plugs, make a big difference.

“It’s incredibly quiet and comfortable,” he said. “That’s really driving a good deal of our ridership.”

Like BART, Caltrain also has made a push to improve safety, Lieberman said. Cameras are everywhere. In a recent customer survey, 82% of respondents had a favorable view of the agency, a figure that hit 91% among frequent riders.

“In our recent customer survey, we got some of our highest marks in terms of safety,” Lieberman said. “I think that really sort of explains a lot of that growth in ridership.”

Malik said Caltrain is quieter and more comfortable than it was before electrification, and she felt safe on Caltrain because staff regularly walk through the train, ensuring that riders have tickets.

“Caltrain is much cleaner now, and the Wi-Fi has improved,” Malik said. “I also feel completely safe on Caltrain. It helps to have this oversight of not having people coming on the train without tickets or doing weird stuff because the conductor will call them out.”

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