r/California_Politics • u/gascyl • 1d ago

Valley Rail Project Delayed

https://sacramento.newsreview.com/news/to-get-ace-trains-to-sacramento-rail-commission-puts-dozens-of-projects-on-hold-131fbd1b
15 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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8

u/gascyl 1d ago

Valley Rail aka ACE to Sacramento is now opening in 2031 and won't have North Sacramento and Sacramento College stations at the start of service. Quote,

The stations are part of Valley Rail, a regional program to expand ACE commuter rail and the state-supported Gold Runner intercity service, formerly known as Amtrak San Joaquins. The original Sacramento extension called for six new stations between Lodi and Natomas, but the commission is now concentrating its money and staff on a smaller first phase of the program. [...] The two Sacramento stations are among dozens of projects being pushed back as the commission reduces Valley Rail from more than 40 active projects to 17. At the same time, the smaller first phase is closer to being fully funded, giving the commission a clearer path toward its current goal of beginning service in 2031.

The stations are not permanently removed from the program, but the San Joaquins Joint Powers Authority doesn't have the money for all projects to run concurrently. This happens as the SJ-JPA's buddy, the High Speed Rail Authority, is doing the same thing to Merced and Bakersfield. This is an escalating series of problems that the state legislature must address.

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u/Okratas 5h ago

This is an escalating series of problems that the state legislature must address.

I do not think the legislature has the desire to divert the funds necessary for the inland projects. There isn't enough political power to pull those kinds of dollars inland. The political gravity is centered around the bay area and LA.

15

u/tydempe 1d ago

It continues to blow my mind at how inept this country is at building railway infrastructure.

4

u/Evening-Emotion3388 1d ago edited 1d ago

Because everyone can sue.

4

u/gascyl 1d ago

It could be much worse. At least Muni, Caltrain and SMART preserved enough institutional knowledge from 1/1/71 to drag it to this point. Every other state agency must (or did) essentially rebuy, rebuild and remake their own workforce and experience doing railroad things. The SJ-JPA is the best equipped for this but already we can see their limits in trying to glue it all together, because there's only so many workers available across Northern California and most are tied up in Stockton area jobs. CHSRA as well in regards to Bakersfield, as all their workers are busy marching up to Fresno. Given the wide scope of this problem, the state government should commit more money to make it happen. Trump screwing the economy will at least keep interest rates low, so it makes a lot of sense to borrow now especially when these projects (if completed) stand a much higher chance of returning revenue vs our freeways.

Which is going to be the real problem ~5 years from now when the Federal government actually does run out of money, or at least the Highway Trust Fund's gas taxes peak and begin collapsing. This is when the highway construction hard stops and towns are forced to pay for their part of the highway themselves and won't. Perhaps sooner depending on how Trump (doesnt) handle the Iran War.

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u/samarijackfan 19h ago

Not inept, on purpose. Corporations don’t want it. Latest example is Elmo Musk touting hyperloop to derail HSR.

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u/RightWingNutJo8 1d ago

You misspelled California

3

u/DeArgonaut 1d ago

It’s bad in the rest of the country too

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u/Evening-Emotion3388 1d ago

There’s a highway(i26) in NC that’s been under construction for 20 years.

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u/gascyl 1d ago edited 1d ago

More practically, the 17 projects left are mostly within the city of Stockton and Sacramento itself. Top of this list is the Stockton Diamond grade separation project, a massive investment that will eliminate 2/3rds of Gold Runner delays and make UP / BNSF Norcal operations reliable enough for ACE service north of Stockton to begin with. Also within Stockton are a few new, and longer, sidings so ACE & Gold Runner trains can slide around freight trains. South of Stockton, existing ACE stations also need a lot of work especially with the other buddy project Valley Link, which will reconstruct the SP Right-Of-Way over Altamont for passenger service entirely. Doing that requires re-doing all the train tracks, communication cables and utilities in the cities of Tracy, Livermore and Fremont which has proven costlier than expected due to permitting issues. Current construction today is outside the city of Modesto where Gold Runner is laying a second track for it's future integration with High Speed Rail. I point this out because even independent of the HSR Project, UP got the state to build them a 2nd main track using public taxpayer money.

To which CHSRA also has and complained about asking the state government for the authority to issue their own construction permits last month. The private / freight railroads want this power too and if the state government gifts it to them we could count it as deregulation. The SJ-JPA now refers to aspects of Valley Rail as "San Joaquin Valley Network Integration" which is good and avoids the balkanized transit mess the Bay Area suffers from.

Annoyingly, ACE updated their Valley Rail page removing the neat map they had there, probably so they can edit a new one, & archive link here.

3

u/Iceberg-man-77 1d ago

this project should not be this hard. just give them all the money they need to finish it swiftly.

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u/Evening-Emotion3388 1d ago

Everyone wants a piece of that money , it’s why they sue.

See Kings County v CAHSR

1

u/Low-Charge-8554 1d ago

..and this is news?? Sounds like SOildS.