SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento Regional Transit is getting some new trains on its gold line.
The gold line connects Folsom and downtown Sacramento, and one of their first steps is to make changes to light rail stations to accommodate the new trains. The project, known as the 'Light Rail Modernization Project,' has three main goals.
Station platforms first need to be modified and the new trains will be made available to riders after extensive testing. SacRT spokesperson Jessica Gonzalez says they also plan to add a new passing track to Folsom stations for 15-minute service.
"We get a lot of people from Folsom coming into downtown, so I know people are going to be really excited that train is going to come every 15 minutes versus every 30 minutes," said Gonzalez.
According to SacRT, they have an average of roughly 9,000 boardings per weekday on the Gold Line. This comes out to roughly less than 5,000 people. On weekends, the numbers are about half.
John Twalina uses SacRT transit services often and he looks forward to seeing new, clean trains.
"It's pretty good and sufficient and it comes like every 15-30 minutes and if there's a problem you can usually read one of the boards and you can tell what’s going on," said Twalina.
Gonzalez says the project will go in phases and this is just phase one. You'll see stations with half of the new platforms finished, and the other half will be done in the project's second phase.
They hope to have some of the new low-floor light rail trains running on the gold line in summer 2024. They will run alongside older trains, as SacRT seeks funding for additional ones.
"We need to make sure our stations are modified before passengers can actually use them. There are definitely a few things that need to happen along the way but we’re really excited. In about 2-3 months we could see these trains out on the system being tested," said Gonzalez.
The first gold-line station to get a new raised platform was the 59th Street station, and they will work toward downtown Sacramento. You can expect weekend closures along the gold line for the next few months.
"We’re really working in different phases and we’ll also have two types of trains for a while. We’ll have new low-floor light rail trains coming through but we’ll still have our older fleet as well," said Gonzalez.
SacRT received grant funding for improvements to the gold line as part of the Highway 50 project. They're working to get funding now for improvements to the blue line.
Future closures:
48th Street - Feb. 18-19
- Bus services will be available from 29th Street to the Power Inn stations from Saturday morning until the end of service on Sunday, Feb 19. Normal service starts back up Monday, Feb. 20.
39th Street - Feb. 25-26
- During the weekend, the busses will be running between the 29th Street and Power Inn stations from Saturday morning until the end of service Sunday.
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