LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER n
ALL ABOARD FOR A
MEGAREGIONAL ECONOMY
PHOTO: ELEAKIS & ELDER PHOTOGRAPHY
E
ver since the Golden Spike was driven into the ground,
150 years ago this month, trains have played a critical
role in Sacramento’s growth and identity. The Transcon-
tinental Railroad opened up a frontier market 1,900 miles away.
The train shaved a couple of months off the time it took to go
west by steamer and at about one-tenth the cost. It brought
people with new ideas west and transported goods from
Sacramento east.
For the next 130 years, the railroad drove the industrial
economy of Sacramento. The railyard on the northern edge of
town was a hub of manufacturing as the western terminus of
the line. Southern Pacific employed as many as 3,000 craftsmen
to build or maintain all of the equipment it took to run a rail-
road. Mechanics repaired locomotives. Lumbermen cut ties to
lay track on. Carpenters and upholsterers created seats and fur-
nishings for passenger cars. Forges fabricated everything from
engine parts to the silverware used in the dining car.
Today, Sacramento’s economy produces different products,
and workers are more likely to carry briefcases than tool belts.
But the railroad still plays an important role. The Capitol Cor-
ridor, which runs between Auburn and the Bay Area, ferried 1.6
million passengers last year, a 6 percent increase from the year
before. It’s the fourth-busiest passenger line in the country, an
attractive alternative to crowded freeways carrying workers
from the foothills and Roseville to Sacramento.
But most passengers don’t get off the train in Sacramento —
they go on to the Bay Area, many to jobs in the high-tech indus-
try that Sacramento’s business leaders are eager to attract here.
It’s early evidence of the megaregional economy many urban
planners see in our future, as major job centers sprawl into near-
by metropolitan areas.
Sacramento and Stockton are on the eastern edges of what
some people already call the Northern California Megaregion.
One price we pay for that proximity to the Bay Area are roads
over Altamont Pass or west to San Francisco that look like park-
ing lots at commute time.
If Sacramento and Stockton are to enjoy more benefits
from this regional growth, trains play a critical role. A third
rail line between Sacramento and Roseville is in the final plan-
ning stages, with construction to start in two years. That will
add two trains a day for Sacramento commuters.
But the Capitol Corridor staff is looking further down the
tracks and deeper into the future to strengthen the connec-
tion between the Bay Area and Sacramento. If early talks with
Bay Area Rapid Transit are successful, there could be a second
Trans-Bay Tube to allow trains directly into San Francisco,
adding capacity and replacing the inconvenient buses that
now ferry passengers over the Bay Bridge from Oakland.
The Capitol Corridor train already has locomotives, manu-
factured in Sacramento, that meet the most advanced emission
standards and are capable of running 125 miles an hour to
speed up service to the Bay Area.
In the Bay Area, some people want to rebuild the long-
abandoned Dumbarton train bridge to improve travel across
the bay from Stockton to Union City. Facebook, which needs
to make commuting easier for its employees, has already
pledged $1 million toward environmental studies to get the
plan moving.
Improving our reach into an economy 200 miles away is
just as important now as the 1,900 mile reach of the Trans-
continental Railroad a century and a half ago — and just as
visionary. Like many long-term visions, it may take a decade or
two before these ideas become real trains on the track. But, as
we saw with the ill-fated High Speed Rail Project, putting good
planning and strong financing into place early on is critical to
long-term success.
It’s not too soon to say “all aboard” for these plans if Sac-
ramento and Stockton are to be more than a commuter stop in
this new megaregional economy.
Winnie Comstock-Carlson
President & Publisher
April 2019 | comstocksmag.com
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