California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

2007-08 – 2017-18 California State Rail Planadditional peak period capacity for within the greater Sacramento urban area andbetween Auburn and the Bay Area. The two services would utilize the sameequipment, staff, and fare structure, and thus would appear fully unified to theriding public.The Auburn-Oakland Regional Rail Service Concept Plan (Plan) was released inJune 2005. The Plan was endorsed by the group’s steering committee inSeptember 2005. This Plan contains a near-term and a long-term implementationaction plan. However, at this time the UP will not participate in any furthercapacity modeling for potential new passenger rail services due to major freightcongestion problems the railroad is experiencing within this and other corridors.The Plan includes three-phases, with a first phase in 2010, planned to add fournew Sacramento-Oakland round-trips. The second phase planned for 2015, wouldinclude four new Sacramento-Auburn round-trips and one additional Oakland toSacramento round-trip. When mixed with Capitol Corridor trains, 30-minuteintervals (headways) would be provided during peak periods in both directions.The third phase, planned for 2020 would add new stations, primarily in theSacramento metropolitan area. Daily ridership of 6,900 is projected byimplementation of the third phase. However, it is now expected that these dateswill slip due to lack of an identified funding source for equipment and capitalimprovements.Auburn-Oakland Regional Rail would initially serve all existing stations along theCapitol Corridor: Auburn, Rocklin, Roseville, Sacramento, Davis,Suisun/Fairfield, Martinez, Richmond, Berkeley, Emeryville, and Oakland.Additional station stops would be phased in at Bowman (5 miles north of Auburn),Antelope, Swanston, West Sacramento, Dixon, Fairfield/Vacaville, Benicia, andHercules for a total of 19 stations.The Plan projects the total cost of operating and maintaining the Regional Railservice to be approximately $15.5 million annually, including fees paid to the UPand Amtrak, vehicle and station maintenance, and administrative expenses.The capital requirements, including new rolling stock, track work and signals,stations and parking, and maintenance facility and other system wideimprovements, are estimated to cost $380 million. The Plan anticipates that thefunding for Regional Rail will come from a mix of sources including Federal NewStarts funds, CMAQ or RSTP, State discretionary funds, the Capitol Corridor, andother local funds. The project is authorized in SAFETEA-LU, under the NewStarts Program for Alternatives Analysis/Preliminary Engineering.164