California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

Chapter II – Capital ProgramCHAPTER IICAPITAL PROGRAMThis chapter describes the intercity rail capital program. It includes theunconstrained and constrained ten-year capital program funding levels and projectlist, a discussion of historical funding for the capital program, and the equipment,grade-crossing, and station programs.CAPITAL PROGRAM GOALSThe Department’s goals for its Capital Program are as follows:• Increase capacity on existing routes to allow increased frequencies,improved reliability, and better on-time performance.• Reduce train-running times to provide travel times directly competitivewith the automobile.• Improve operational functioning and attractiveness of equipment, stationsand facilities, including improved multimodal connectivity.• Increase farebox ratio to reach or exceed the Department’s 50 percentstandard. (Furtherance of the three above goals will result in improvedcost-effectiveness and increased farebox ratio.)• Improve safety of State-supported intercity rail service, including gradecrossings.• Implement projects to allow new cost-effective routes.These goals are used to guide the development of the ten-year capital programdescribed below. Every capital project furthers one or more of these goals.UNCONSTRAINED TEN-YEAR CAPITAL PROGRAMFigure 2A presents the Department’s ten-year unconstrained capital program forthe three existing State-supported routes and the Coast Route. This $4.03 billioncapital program is based on project needs, and not funding expectations. It onlyincludes projects where the state or other public entity is anticipated to bea funding partner, and does not include projects that will be fully funded bya railroad. Full project costs are included. Figure 2B is a list of projects includedin the unconstrained program. (See Figure 2C below for a constrained capitalprogram consistent with expected future State funding levels.)The unconstrained Ten-Year Intercity Rail Capital Program was developed froma number of sources. First, the near-term projects include all projects currently17