CAPITOL CORRIDOR
SERVICE PERFORMANCE
Service Performance Overview
The Capitol Corridor returned to positive territory in March 2017. A total of 141,252
passengers rode the Capitol Corridor trains, a record for the service and an increase
of 2.4% compared to March 2016. Revenue grew 2.2% in year-over-year growth. This
growth was notable given that in 2016, Easter (which tends to be associated with
higher ridership), was in March and this year it falls in April. The Year to Date (FYTD
17) System Operating Ratio is 54%, exceeding the standard of 52%.
March 2017 also showed continued improvement in service reliability. On-Time
Performance (OTP) for March 2017 improved to 92% compared to 90% in February
2017, and the substandard 85% from January 2017. Reliability increased in March
2017 due to improved mechanical performance of the Capitol Corridor trainsets and
reductions in host railroad delays from Union Pacific Railroad. OTP stayed above the
90% standard despite the occurrence of incidents that were beyond the control of
our service partners: trespasser-related incidents and vehicles stuck on the tracks.
The following are ridership highlights based on reports received from Amtrak:
• Average weekend ridership for March 2017 declined 2.1% compared to the
prior March, which can be attributed to the weekend ridership peak that
occurred Easter weekend in March 2016.
• Average weekday ridership was up by 2.4% compared to March 2016, which
illustrates the continued growth in weekday ridership due to the growing
economy in the Northern California Megaregion.
State Legislation
Passage of Senate Bill 1 (Beall)
On the evening of Thursday April 6, 2017, both the Senate and Assembly passed
Senate Bill 1 (Beall) with a 2/3 super-majority vote. Governor Brown, who
campaigned extensively in support of SB 1, is expected to sign/enact SB 1 the week
of April 17. SB 1 provides over $5 billion per year in added funds to various state
transportation accounts that would be available to fix the state’s crumbling
transportation infrastructure. Both houses also passed with super-majorities
Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 5 (Frazier/Newman), which protects
these new transport funds and which will be submitted to the California voters for
approval in 2018. Below is a draft overview of how the new funds in SB 1 positively
impact the CCJPA/Capitol Corridor:
•
•
Approximately $5M per year in dedicated funds (for operating and/or capital)
from a portion of the 0.5% increase in state diesel sales tax
Opportunity(ies) to apply for $0.5B in annual competitive grants:
o Approximately $245M/year in Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program
(TIRCP) funds (capital uses) through a portion of increased Vehicle
License Fees (VLF), plus a one-time transfer of $236 million in FY18 for
a payback in General Funds to the TIRCP account.
o Approximately $250M/year in Congested Corridors Program funds
(capital uses) through a portion of increased VLF revenues for multi-
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o
modal, multi-county solutions to address heavily congested travel
corridors.
Approximately $5M/year in STIP Interregional funds (fixed guideway
capital uses; not operating or rolling stock) through a portion of
increased gas excise tax revenues.
A path forward is now available to advance various security/safety initiatives,
enhance service amenities, and expand Capitol Corridor frequencies to San Jose
and Roseville, as well as to procure added rail vehicles (cars and locomotives) to
support these added frequencies.
FY 2017 Federal Appropriations
It is unclear what actions Congress will take on the Continuing Resolution (CR)
which is set to expire on April 28, 2017. To avoid a shutdown of the federal
government, a likely scenario is: Congress will pass another very short-term CR
lasting one or two weeks while plans are finalized to fund the remainder of FY17
(through September 30, 2017). During this mini-CR, Congress could either pass a
year-long CR which would fund the government through September 30 at the FY16
levels or pass an Omnibus bill that would include some individual FY17 funding bills,
including provision within the THUD (US DOT) bill to finance Rail Title accounts
from the FAST Act [up to $80M for the CRISI (rail infrastructure) or SOGR (state of
good repair) accounts]. A CR, however, will result in no funds being appropriated to
the FAST Act Rail Title.
Customer Service Program Upgrades
Bicycle Access Program: New BikeLink eLockers have been installed at six Capitol
Corridor stations: Sacramento, Davis, Suisun/Fairfield, Martinez, Berkeley, and
Emeryville, and they are expected to be installed at Roseville and Auburn on April
14. CCJPA staff are working with the property management company of the
Oakland Jack London Square Station to finalize an agreement to allow installation of
eLockers there, and staff are also working with VTA to construct a concrete pad at
the Santa Clara/Great America Station to provide adequate space for that station’s
planned eLockers. Installation at Jack London, Great America, and Hayward stations
is expected in May and June of 2017.
The CCJPA Onboard Bicycle Storage project has officially moved into the
demonstration phase. CCJPA staff is working with the selected vendor to refine the
designs for a new bike rack system that would allow more bikes to be stored
onboard. The demo rack was installed in cab car 8203 and will rotate through
revenue trains for about a month starting on April 10. Staff is collecting feedback by
having staff ride the train and talk to passengers directly, as well as through an
online survey. After the demonstration period, passenger feedback will be
evaluated, and CCJPA staff will further refine the design and decide whether to
replace additional bike racks with the modified racks.
The Folding Bicycle Rental Service RFP was released to the public on April 10, with
responses due June 9. CCJPA and BART staff will review proposals, conduct
interviews, and make a final selection by June 30, 2017.
Richmond Station Platform Improvements: The CCJPA staff has been working with
BART staff to implement a flashing light/beacon at the Capitol Corridor/Amtrak
Richmond Station platform which will indicate to conductors on
Sacramento/Auburn-bound Capitol Corridor trains that a BART train is approaching,
and to wait for passengers to transfer from the inbound BART train to the waiting
eastbound Capitol Corridor train. In addition, the project will involve installation of a
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Clipper Card Parking Validation Machine (PVM) on the Capitol Corridor/Amtrak
boarding platform so that Capitol Corridor passengers parking at the Richmond
BART parking garage can pay/validate parking with their Clipper Card on the train
platform. BART Engineering has reviewed the design for these elements, and plans
to use BART employees to implement the project in 2017.
Marketing: Promotions (digital and social media) continue for the “Buy-One, GetOne Free” (BOGO) on Saturdays offer. Results have been positive, with increased
ridership on Saturdays; the promotion ends June 30, 2017. The Friends & Family
discount continues, and the popular Senior Midweek 50% off deal will start again in
early April. The advertising campaign with regional parenting magazines in
Sacramento, the East Bay, and Silicon Valley is also underway, and we will reintroduce the Take 5 Weekend promotion after BOGO Saturdays ends. Strategic
partnerships include the Oakland A’s, the River Cats, SF Giants, and Great America.
Staff is working with Live Nation to promote a special late-night concert train for
the May 17 U2 concert at Levi’s Stadium; UC Davis to offer online courses through
Capitol Corridor’s wi-fi landing page; and SHN to promote three upcoming shows at
the SHN Theatre in San Francisco. Staff also launched its first quarterly electronic
newsletter for Group Travel participants.
Safety Initiatives
Security Cameras at Capitol Corridor Stations: Procurement is complete for
the installation of cameras and surveillance equipment at the Rocklin, Roseville,
Suisun, and Fremont stations. This project is under construction and should be
completed during the first half of 2017. Funding has been identified in a future
funding year for security cameras at the Martinez, Emeryville, and Oakland Jack
London Square stations. When complete, all Capitol Corridor stations will be
equipped with security cameras and surveillance equipment.
Positive Train Control: The Union Pacific Railroad has continued to advance PTC
implementation on their system. The Union Pacific’s testing of the PTC system now
includes all their major routes in California. The testing covers only select Union
Pacific freight trains, and at this time, does not include any operating partners such
as Amtrak, Capitol Corridor, or ACE. The CCJPA has received and is reviewing initial
information from UPRR on the expected installation and maintenance costs of PTC
for the Capitol Corridor route.
Installation of the PTC hardware (electronic equipment) on the state-owned rail
equipment is currently complete for the Northern California intercity rail fleet
(supporting the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains) with all locomotives and
cab cars equipped. Software installation and testing continues with the on-board
equipment. Amtrak’s installation of the remote back-office server (BOS), which will
convey the location of the Capitol Corridor trains to the UPRR dispatch center, is
under development and should be available for testing in mid-2017. Caltrain
continues use of their own PTC system known as CBOSS, but they have not yet
extended their testing to any other operating partners.
Safety Train: On March 1, 2017, in support of the “See Tracks, Think Train!” (ST3) Rail
Safety Awareness campaign, the Capitol Corridor partnered with Union Pacific
Railroad, Amtrak, and California Operation Lifesaver (CAOL) and operated a Special
Safety Train between Oakland and Hayward to enhance awareness regarding rail
safety. The event brought to light the issues faced by Capitol Corridor, Union
Pacific, and Amtrak with regards to trespassing on railroad property, encampments
that have encroached the railroad right of way, and people violating rail crossing
laws.
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The event also helped Capitol Corridor, Union Pacific, and Amtrak to build
relationships with city officials; and together we have identified and created
remedial action steps for homeless encampments along the tracks, vegetation in
need of abatement, and fencing that needs to be repaired or installed within the
City of Hayward and the City of Oakland.
Our next Safety Train will run between Suisun and Davis and will be held June 2nd
to coincide with the International Level Crossing Awareness Day.
Project Updates
Travel Time Savings Project: UPRR is working towards completion of the TTS
Project with a projected completion date in mid-2017. The project is continuing
based on availability of UPRR construction crews. The next steps included will
include calculating reduced travel times (estimated to be between 6-10 minutes)
to be achieved for Capitol Corridor trains between Sacramento and San Jose.
This project was financed with a combination of $10 million in Prop 1A High Speed
Train Connectivity funds and $4.62 million in Cap and Trade TIRCP funds.
Sacramento-Roseville 3rd Track Project. CCJPA has applied to the California
Transportation Commission (CTC) for the full funding for proceeding into final
design and right-of-way (ROW) acquisition for Phase 1 of the Sacramento to
Roseville 3rd Track Project. The CTC application submittal is partially developed
from the initial 30% design plans on the project area immediately adjacent to Old
Town Roseville. This is a pinch point between City of Roseville and UPRR where
CCJPA worked to ameliorate design concerns. The resolution of those design
concerns helped provide the necessary preliminary details of schedule and budget
for the CTC funding allocation request but also indicated that an additional
supplemental EIR will be required to address relocating parking in the Old Town
Roseville area. The allocation is expected by the June 2017 CTC meeting. Once
awarded, the UPRR has indicated that they would prefer to be in a review role, so
that means CCJPA will be procuring the final design through a procurement effort
where UPRR will assist CCJPA in the selection of the preferred design engineering
consultant. CCJPA will apply for the construction funds in early 2019 once the
design and ROW effort is nearing completion.
Outlook – Closing
Halfway through FY 2017, Capitol Corridor continues to perform at or above
established annual performance standards for ridership, revenues, reliability/OTP,
and efficiencies. After several months of substandard service reliability, OTP
continues to improve and is now meeting the standard of 90% for FYTD17. CCJPA
service partners have taken important corrective actions that improved reliability
without sacrificing safety, convenience, and high-quality on-board amenities.
While ridership and revenues are above prior year levels, the rate of ridership
growth does seem to be slowing down somewhat. Many transit operators, at least in
the Bay Area, are experiencing flatter, and in some cases, declining ridership. Given
this trend in the transit industry, along with the Capitol Corridor’s flatter growth, we
are implementing new marketing promotions to drive ridership and revenues even
more, particularly in the leisure and tourism markets, focusing on filling empty seats
during off peak times like weekends and midweek. Other efforts to increase
ridership and enhance the customer experience include the completion of the Travel
Time Savings Project, as well as initiatives to enhance access to trains, such as the
addition of station bike lockers and added on-board bike storage capacity.
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