Californians for Electric Rail

@calelectricrail.bsky.social

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Transit advocates, environmentalists, and union members fighting for fast, clean, safe catenary electric rail in California. #CatenaryNow #ElectrifyMetrolink

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Are you in LA/Long Beach? Come to this community meeting tomorrow, 7/18 at 5 pm in San Pedro to learn more about the Railyard Indirect Source Rule, South Coast Air District's proposed regulation to facilitate railyard electrification. www.movela.org/isr_communit...

ISR Community Meetingwww.movela.org

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Californians for Electric Rail

"No rolling blackouts or grid emergencies as California continues on path to a carbon free grid. Several strategies, including upgrades to vulnerable parts of the grid at play here, but key enabler is more clean energy, especially solar, and above all, battery storage..." 😀

California Grid Breezes Through Heat Wave due to Renewables, Batteriesthinc.blog No rolling blackouts or grid emergencies as California continues on path to a carbon free grid. Several strategies, including upgrades to vulnerable parts of the grid at play here, but key enabler …

New USDOT report on Decarbonizing Transportation calls for freight mode shift from trucks to rail and increased investment in public transit, passenger, and intercity rail. CARB and Caltrans should be taking notes, as they have undermined these goals. www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/us-dot-...

The new hydrogen trains for the Arrow are far from Zero Emission, nor are they the first zero emission trains in SoCal, let alone the state. @streetsblogla.bsky.social cal.streetsblog.org/2024/07/16/d...

Don't Believe the Hydrogen Train Hype - Streetsblog Californiacal.streetsblog.org Calling hydrogen-powered trains "zero emission" is misleading at best - and even if they were, they lost the race to be "first" a long time ago

Hear one of our members on the Talking Headways podcast talk about the promise of overhead electrification and the dangers of hydrogen rail usa.streetsblog.org/2024/07/11/t...

Talking Headways Podcast: Electrify the Rails — Streetsblog USAusa.streetsblog.org Adrianna Rizzo of Californians for Electric Rail on California's looming lobbyist-fueled hydrogen train mistake.

SoCal governance in a nutshell: Metrolink has little political support and agencies won't work together; meanwhile the Foothill Authority must continuously build to justify its existence. Thus expensive, redundant A line to Montclair over Metrolink double track and electrification.

Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority is proceeding with Pomona to Montclair extension of LA Metro’s A Line. Only Kiewit (Glendora to Pomona contractor) responded to RFQ. Staff recommend only qualifying Kiewit to bid on Montclair extension. foothillgoldline.org/wp-content/u...

The resounding success of Borealis shows that the people hunger for intercity rail! So why is Caltrans planning for stagnation (and sabotaging planned Capitol Corridor improvements) by pushing hydrogen on CA's Amtrak-branded intercity trains? media.amtrak.com/2024/07/bore...

Borealis Ridership Tops 18,500 in First Full Month - Amtrak Mediamedia.amtrak.com Amtrak and states impressed by positive response to new service CHICAGO – Preliminary figures from the first full month of state-sponsored Borealis trains

To put this in perspective we spent $700 million/year on rail electrification, we could electrify existing ROW between Sacramento and Merced in one year (using estimated costs for HSR catenary of $6 million/mile).

Air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley costs residents over $700 million/year in healthcare and lost productivity costs. Yet supposedly we can't afford to electrify our railways? themercedfocus.org/air-pollutio...

Air-pollution study finds Valley residents pay millions on ‘completely preventable’ medical coststhemercedfocus.org The hidden costs of air pollution in San Joaquin Valley revealed: medical expenses, school absences, and lost productivity.

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Last week, my newsletter highlighted how over 1/3 of premature births are attributed to the mothers' exposure to pollution from fossil fuels. Now, a new study shows air pollution reduces IVF success by 40%. For health reasons alone, fossil fuels need to go. globalnews.ca/news/1060157...

More green energy is powering the globe every daywww.talkingclimate.ca Global renewables surge, fossil fuel and climate change impacts on mothers and babies, and how to prepare for the hurricane season

The 2018 State Rail Plan calls for 30 minute, electrified regional rail service between San Jose and Solano County. But these plans are mysteriously absent from Capitol Corridor's EIR on South Bay Connect, which is supposed to speed up CC in the South Bay - why? southbayconnect.com

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Californians for Electric Rail

www.latimes.com/california/s... #USRail 🇺🇸 California’s entire HSR route from Los Angeles to San Francisco has officially been environmentally cleared for construction after the CHSRA board of directors voted Thursday to certify the final review of the line’s critical Palmdale to Burbank segment.

Despite seismic concerns, last segment of LA to SF high-speed rail line cleared environmentallywww.latimes.com When adjusted for inflation, outgoing CEO Brian Kelly said that the final segment, from Palmdale to Burbank, would cost nearly $29 billion.

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Californians for Electric Rail

I called Senator Schumer and told him exactly this, in nearly these words. The fight is not just about congestion pricing. It's about the importance of democracy itself, and whether Democrats value democratic rule of law. ☎️ (202) 224-6542 ☎️ (212) 486-4430 @thewaroncars.bsky.social

CA High Speed Rail Authority has completed all environmental clearances between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Metrolink can use this clearance to electrify Burbank-LA today without doing any extra EIRs. Let's get this done, speed up Metrolink and get HSR to LA sooner! hsr.ca.gov/2024/05/24/n...

hsr.ca.gov

Victory Alert: #AB2503, our bill to speed up overhead electrification of passenger trains, has passed the Senate Transportation Committee 9-3! One step closer to becoming law.

This weekend we joined environmental justice advocates from around the country to learn from people impacted by diesel pollution and collaborate to electrify rail in frontline communities. Thanks to CCAEJ, EYC4EJ, the Moving Forward Network, Sierra Club, and others for making this possible!

SANDAG must not let a tiny, privileged minority in Del Mar/Solana Beach end rail service between California's two largest cities. More and more are saying - build the Del Mar tunnel and electrify the tracks! www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/06/22/s...

Solana Beach clashes with Del Mar over train tunnel routewww.sandiegouniontribune.com Neighboring cities differ on whether railroad should be moved to proposed alternative along Interstate 5

Caltrain had a race between their new electric trains and old diesel trains. The faster acceleration of the new EMUs is night and day with diesel. Let's get these beauties on all of California's railways! www.tiktok.com/@gocaltrain/...

TikTok - Make Your Daywww.tiktok.com

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Californians for Electric Rail

I would like more trains, and faster.

True for trains, true for everything

Electric vs Gas xkcd.com/2948

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Californians for Electric Rail

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Californians for Electric Rail

Seriously. Where are standard designs for rail electrification and modernization for CA?

Lots of conversation at the Transit Transformation Task Force about state level transit planning, engineering, and project delivery -- exactly what we need to deliver electrification quickly, affordably, and at scale. More and more agree we need a #JustTransitionForCaltrans! x.com/seamlessbaya...

This is the Californians for Electric Rail vision (except with new catenary locomotives rather than Interurban)

I want to live in a world in which electric Interurban box motors haul piggyback trailers on flatcars instead of clogging the highways.

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Californians for Electric Rail

The rate at which air pollution from power plants, cars, etc. kills people is wild. Millions of deaths per year, almost all avoidable if we replace fossil-fueled cars, trucks, power plants, furnaces, boilers, etc. by clean alternatives that are affordable and effective today.

'Fine particulate matter “was associated with approximately 135 million premature deaths globally” from 1980 to 2020, the university said in a statement about the study' www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...

Air pollution killed 135 million people in last four decades, landmark study findswww.independent.co.uk Asia accounted for over 98 million of the premature deaths linked to PM2.5 pollution

CARB continues to treat catenary as an afterthought. An on-paper analysis of zero emissions freight did not explicitly study catenary, even though wired trains are the only mature ZE freight rail tech and ideal for high-traction conditions like the Cajon pass. www.trains.com/trn/news-rev...

California concludes zero-emissions locomotives are ready to roll - Trainswww.trains.com The California Air Resources Board pitted a standard diesel-electric locomotive consist against zero-emissions alternatives – including battery-electric models from Wabtec and ProgressRail as well as ...

Amtrak hit an all-time ridership record last month. The people hunger for trains, time to make investments in service-improving, zero emission electric trains around the country! spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/watertow...

Amtrak ridership hit all-time high in Mayspectrumlocalnews.com Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said the nation's passenger railroad service is on track to break 2019's ridership record this year.

🚨San Diego:🚨 SANDAG is doing community outreach on the Del Mar Tunnel on 6/18 at 6 pm. They need to hear from transit riders who want a better LOSSAN. Tell them to support alternative B, the fastest and greenest, and to leave room for wires in the tunnels! www.sandag.org/calendar/los...

SANDAG - LOSSAN Rail Realignment Public Scoping Meetingwww.sandag.org LOSSAN Rail Realignment Public Scoping Meeting

Build the tunnels, electrify the tracks, and increase rail service between California's two largest cities. The LOSSAN corridor is too important to let die. Great op-ed by our friends at Ride SD! www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/comm...

Opinion: The rail corridor between L.A. and San Diego is too important not to fix. Why wait?www.sandiegouniontribune.com The closure forces more people to drive, adding to traffic congestion and carbon dioxide emissions around our beautiful coast

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Californians for Electric Rail

Loved seeing the Caltrain EMUs going back and forth last weekend

Caltrain has conducted a successful test of 8 electric trains at once on the system. Full electric service - with 15 minute peak, 30 minute off peak frequencies - will begin September 21st! 🎉🎉🎉https://www.caltrain.com/news/caltrain-runs-eight-trains-simultaneously-newly-completed-corridor

Caltrain Runs Eight Trains Simultaneously on Newly Completed Corridor | Caltrainwww.caltrain.com Few steps remain before the fleet of the future enters service