I’m sitting in a window seat on the Caltrain — the hum of the motor blends with the soft chatter of passengers and the occasional jingle of a phone notification. As the train glides along the tracks, I look out at the blur of cars stuck in traffic on El Camino Real, inching along as we breeze past them. I’ve ridden this train countless times, but this trip feels different somehow, like I’m not just being propelled toward San Francisco. I’m being propelled into the future.

Despite electrification proposals as early as 1992, the $2.4 billion Caltrain Modernization Program to electrify all Caltrains finally began construction in 2017 with complete electrification scheduled for Sept. 21. This iteration of CalMod consisted of overhead electrification lines from San Francisco’s 4th and King Street station down to San Jose’s Tamien station. It also included the purchase of 23 new electric train sets to replace the diesel fleet.

This upgrade is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 250,000 tons each year, the equivalent output of 55,000 cars. Additionally, the electricity used to power the new lines will only be bought from net-zero emission sources.

The impact of this is substantial, but especially for Caltrain. In general, trains are more efficient than cars, but that only applies when they’re actually carrying passengers. And Caltrain was running lines with half-empty cars and inefficient diesel engines before this upgrade, making it actually less efficient than other transport options.

Even with low ridership, the Caltrain continuously passed by Paly, creating significant disruption. The diesel trains rattled classrooms, constantly causing classes to pause throughout the day until the noise stopped. But with the new electric trains, even sitting in my class in the back of the 800’s building, the noise of a train passing by is barely noticeable. 

This noise improvement, combined with electrification, allows for faster, more efficient service without disruption to nearby communities. In addition, people like to look at top speed as the main factor in judging transportation options, but the diesel Caltrain was too weak to even reach its 79 mph top speed between closely spaced stops. 

Just like an electric car, electrification offers a substantial increase in torque, allowing the trains to increase speed and substantially cut down travel time.

That means a trip from Palo Alto to San Francisco drops to below 40 minutes on the express train. Additionally, the local train from San Jose to San Francisco decreases from 100 to 75 minutes.

More importantly, the new trains allow for an increase in service. Palo Alto is already one of the few lucky stations to receive four stops per hour during peak hours, and service during the weekend is doubling from the previous once per hour. The California Avenue station is getting more trains during peak hours and off hours as well as the weekend. And16 other stations will now have four stops during peak hours, and every station will have trains that stop every 30 minutes at all times.

This is the most important change. In addition to the convenience of Palo Alto Link, it’s now possible to just show up to your nearest station — a train comes by within a few minutes, whisking you off to your destination faster than ever before. 

Previously, whenever I wanted to take the Caltrain, I had to consult the schedule ahead of time and plan my entire trip around the train time. Now, the combination of the speed and service eliminates the inconvenient sacrifices I used to have to make just to take the train, making it one of the best options for travel to San Jose or San Francisco.

I expect these improvements to boost ridership immensely, which would prove the value of the investment in train electrification and pave the way for transportation improvements across the nation, beginning with Los Angeles’ Metrolink.

But it doesn’t end there. Those who have been following the California High Speed Rail saga from the beginning know that there has been slow movement on the project since the passage of Proposition 1A in 2008 where California voters approved the state’s High Speed Rail authority. 

I have had cautious optimism that the state-wide high speed rail project would be completed by the time I go bald, but the success of electric Caltrains might change things. The success of Caltrain is directly tied to high-speed rail, and once high-speed rail is ready for wider service, it will share the corridor from San Jose to San Francisco thanks to Caltrain’s new electric infrastructure.

Caltrain modernization shows the potential to reform our transportation and take cars off the road at a time when it’s critical to the future of our planet.