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Caltrain’s average weekend ridership rose to 21,210 passengers in fiscal year 2026, about 50% higher than 2019 levels, as the railroad continues to recover from pandemic-era declines, the agency announced on Thursday.
The agency said weekend ridership increased 40.6% from the previous fiscal year, following the introduction of electric trains in September 2024 and a more than doubling of weekend service from 32 to 66 trains a day.
July set a new monthly ridership record of 1.32 million passengers, while an average of 32,000 riders traveled on Saturdays, according to the agency.
Weekday ridership also climbed, reaching an average of 40,800 in fiscal 2026, up 37.5% from the previous year and sitting at 81.6% of 2019 levels.
San Francisco Station recorded a 41% increase in weekend ridership, while 22nd Street posted the largest station-level gain, at 59%. Several stations, including South San Francisco, Hayward Park, Lawrence, and Santa Clara, have surpassed their 2019 weekday ridership levels.
Despite the gains, Caltrain faces budget pressures tied to changing commuting patterns and work-from-home trends, Caltrain said.
The agency has warned that without additional funding, potential cuts could include closing more than a third of its stations, eliminating weekend service and reducing train frequency.
I’m guessing based on this article that electric trains are far more expensive than the previous trains. PGE certainly isn’t going to provide a price break on electricity usage and freight isn’t going to maintain the electric infrastructure since they don’t use it (Per federal regulation, freight pays for all track maintenance). Those electric trains are incredibly loud, their horns are at least 3-4x louder than the previous trains, extremely annoying when you live close to the tracks.
There are other reasons why electrification is beneficial, but cutting operating cost is not one of them. That was a lie from Caltrain.
According to the “Strategic Financial Plan Update” presented at the February 1, 2024 board meeting, electrification by itself was expected to increase annual operating costs from $105 million, by $25 million, to $130 million — a permanent increase just shy of 25%. See Slide 15, “Key Driver – Rail Operator Budget”.
The adopted Fiscal Year 2027 operating budget forecasts “Rail Operations” for the fiscal year just ended at $128.5 million. Electricity is forecasted at $15 million, in-line with fuel spending from 2022 through the start of electrification. Additional fuel expense remains, for the Gilroy trains.
Caltrain purchases only 100% green/renewable (carbon emissions-free) power by agreements with CCAs (“Community Choice Aggregators”) SJ and Peninsula Clean Energy to run their sleek, new high-performance Swiss electric trains. The expected power costs have been far lower than originally projected. Similar to all modern EVs, due to the fact that they are normally almost exclusively slowed with friction-free regenerative braking which pushes about 25% of the power drawn from the grid back into the overhead contact wire for other trains or grid customers to use.
Horns: after to early complaints, Caltrain together with the train manufacturer Stadler have adjusted horns to the lowest end of the same federally-mandated 96-110 decibel range required for all US train horns.
“Weekday ridership also climbed, […] sitting at 81.6% of 2019 levels.”
The correct figure is 67.5% and that was only one month, June (2026 versus 2019). Weekday recovery did not “sit” at that level, either. It was as low as 52.9% in the worst month of the fiscal year, December (2025 versus 2018).
81.6% was for total ridership (weekdays plus weekends). Even that was only the best month, June. Total ridership recovery was as low as 59.7% in December.
You cannot ignore seasonality. May or June is the best month every year.
You cannot count weekend ridership improvement since September, 2024 as pandemic recovery. Weekend service was doubled starting that month.
See:
– Page 13: “Figure 7: Average Weekday Ridership and Pandemic Recovery by Month”,
– Page 11: “Figure 4: Total Monthly Ridership by Fiscal Year”, and
– Page 12: “Figure 5: Total Monthly Ridership and Pandemic Recovery Rate by Month”
of the “Caltrain Ridership Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Report” on the Caltrain Web site.
Tap or click:
– About Caltrain [menu]
– Statistics and Reports
– (Statistics and Other Reports) Ridership Reports
– Annual Ridership Reports
– Fiscal Year 2026 Annual Ridership Report