Caltrain electric service increased ridership

Caltrain’s newly electrified service has drawn new riders, as the California passenger-rail agency reports its best ridership numbers since before COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Caltrain’s retired diesel fleet has been sold to the city of Lima, Peru.

Caltrain, which operates between San Francisco and San Jose, had over 753,000 passengers in October, a 54% increase from October 2023. Average weekday ridership jumped 38% to nearly 27,000. Current weekend ridership has overtaken pre-pandemic levels, with Saturday ridership rising by a whopping 169% and Sundays by 142% from last year, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

Total ridership between August, the last month of primarily diesel service, and October, the first month of all electric service, rose 17%. Average weekend ridership grew 38%. Typically, monthly ridership begins to decline after August, but this year it has increased by more than 100,000 riders, Caltrain officials said.

“When we broke ground on the electrification project back in 2017, we set out to deliver a state-of-the-art modern rail system for the people we serve,” said Caltrain Executive Director Michelle Bouchard. “It is immensely gratifying to see our riders embrace our new service on this scale.”

The retired diesel fleet that will be shipped to Lima will be used on a new commuter-rail system. The agreement transfers 90 retired gallery cars and 19 diesel locomotives to Lima at a price of over $6 million.