By Erin Baldassari, Marin Independent Journal; August 1, 2019
Caltrain could see faster, more frequent service sooner rather than later under a proposal that would shift billions of dollars from the Central Valley segment of the state’s bullet train project and distribute it to other parts of the state.
The conceptual plan, which was hatched by Democrats in Southern California and is a long way from a concrete proposal, could be a boon for Caltrain. It would scale back the middle section of the high-speed rail project by running slower diesel trains instead of electric ones in exchange for significantly increasing passenger rail service in both the Bay Area and Los Angeles, where populations are densest and traffic is most congested.