Capitol Corridor
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The Capitol Corridor is a 292-mile (470 km) passenger train route operated by Amtrak in California. Because it is fully supported by the state, the Capitol Corridor operates under the brand Amtrak California. It runs daily from the San Francisco Bay Area to Sacramento. Currently, the Capitol Corridor has about 1.2 million riders per year [link], and is the third busiest Amtrak route in terms of ridership, surpassed only by the Northeast Corridor and the Pacific Surfliner. One daily scheduled train continues through the eastern Sacramento suburbs to Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. There are plans to extend one daily scheduled train to Reno, Nevada and increase train frequency through out the route. The trains are administered by the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority, with management provided by employees of Bay Area Rapid Transit.
It is commonly used by commmuters between the Sacramento area and the Bay Area. Monthly passes and discounted trip tickets are available on the line. Many high ranking politicians, lobbyists, and their aides choose to live in the Bay Area and commute to their jobs in Sacramento, while workers in the Oakland, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley employment centers take the Capitol Corridor trains from their less expensive homes in Solano County and the Sacramento metropolitan area. [link]
Station stops
Even-numbered trains run eastbound, and odd-numbered trains run westbound; weekday trains begin with a 5 and weekend trains begin with a 7. All trains run between Sacramento and Oakland; only 527, 538, 729 and 738 continue to Auburn. Several trains continue past downtown Oakland to the Oakland Coliseum, and many trains continue past to San Jose. Trains make the following station stops; none are skipped:
- Auburn
- Rocklin
- Roseville
- Sacramento
- Davis
- Suisun-Fairfield
- Martinez
- Richmond (BART connection)
- Berkeley
- Emeryville (serves San Francisco)
- Oakland-Jack London Square
- Oakland Coliseum (BART connection)
- Hayward
- Fremont-Centerville
- Santa Clara-Great America
- San Jose (Caltrain connection)
- Transfer at Sacramento
- *Redding, Marysville, Oroville, Chico, Red Bluff, Corning
- *Nevada City, Grass Valley
- *Reno, Nevada, Truckee, Colfax
- *Carson City, Nevada, South Lake Tahoe, Placerville, Cameron Park, Rancho Cordova
- Transfer at Martinez
- *Eureka, Arcata, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma, Vallejo
- *Napa
- Transfer at San Jose
- *Santa Cruz, Monterey
- *Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Salinas, Gilroy, Morgan Hill
Proposed Stations
Stations have been proposed in Hercules, Benicia and Northern Fairfield and Vacaville. An intermodal station is planned at the Union City station, connecting to BART as part of a larger Dumbarton Rail Corridor Project to connect Union City, Fremont, and Newark to various Peninsula destinations via the Dumbarton rail bridge. The station is being planned and paid for by BART and the city of Union City [link].
Origin of route name
The Capitol Corridor is given this name because it links the state's first capital, San Jose (1850), with the state's current capital, Sacramento. The rail route also travels near historical state capitals of Vallejo (1852) and Benicia (1853). (See also: Historical California capitals.)The Capitol Corridor route is also on occasion called the Capitols. But in order to avoid confusion with the Amtrak Capitol Limited route from Washington, D.C. to Chicago, Capitol Corridor is now the official name and preferred name.
Equipment
The locomotives and rolling stock used by the Capitol Corridor are also used on the San Joaquin trains. This includes fourteen EMD F59PHI locomotives (Numbered 2001 through 2015), and two GE P32-8WH (Dash 8) locomotives (Numbered 2051 & 2052, formerly Amtrak 501 & 502), and a large amount of Bi-level coaches and café cars, named "California Cars" are used. All cars are named after the many mountains and rivers of California. There are two series of California Cars, the 6000 series and the 8000 series. The 6000 series is newer. Standard Amtrak equipment such as the GE P42DC, Amtrak's main locomotive, standard Amtrak Dash 8 locomotives, and Superliner cars may appear on Capitol Corridor trains as substitutes.In rarer cases, F59PHI's from the Amtrak "Surfliner" and "Cascades" trains, and Caltrain EMD F40PH and MPI MP36PH-3C locomotives have been used as substitutes.
When the Capitol Corridor debuted in 1991, the equipment used were Amtrak F40PH locomotves and Amtrak Horizon Fleet cars. Dash 8 locomotives were also used as they were brand new at the time. This equipment was used until the mid 90's when most of the current equipment arrived.
{| class="toccolours" border="1" cellpadding="4" style="margin: 0 auto; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center;" width=50% |- style="background:#F0F0F0;" ! Amtrak routes |- style="text-align: center;" |California
Amtrak California: Capitol Corridor - Pacific Surfliner - San Joaquins
long-distance: California Zephyr - Coast Starlight - Southwest Chief - Sunset Limited - Texas Eagle
External links
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