Traveling by train on the Central Coast could soon get easier thanks to $1 million in federal funding. The money will go towards improving two train routes — Amtrak’s Central Coast Corridor and the Pacific Surfliner.
Part of the funding plans to add more Central Coast Corridor routes and stops between the Central Coast and the Bay Area.
“Whether you're going up to the Bay Area for shopping, or a medical visit, or coming down to visit a student or to give a lecture at Cal Poly, you'll have more opportunities to take the train every day,” Kyle Gradinger with Caltrans said.
Currently, the only route that exists between San Luis Obispo and San Jose is the Coast Starlight.
According to Amtrak Conductor Chris Victorino, there’s a demand for additional trains.
“It would be nice to have a couple of northbound trains,” Victorino said. “Right now, we only have the coast Starlight Northbound– it gets pretty crowded.”
The funding could also extend the Pacific Surfliner’s route further south. As of now, it starts in San Luis Obispo and ends in downtown San Diego.
The route could be extended to San Ysidro — a move that could potentially pave the way for a major expansion.
“This really provides the potential for the corridor to extend into and toward Mexico and become an international service at some point in time,” Gradinger said.
San Ysidro is a port of entry between the San Diego-Tijuana, Mexico border. It’s one of the busiest land ports of entry in the Western Hemisphere, with 70,000 northbound vehicles and 20,000 pedestrians crossing each day.
According to Caltrans, the Central Coast railroad improvement projects are in their early planning and development phases.
The funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which the Biden Administration passed in 2021 to finance transportation projects across the country. Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal heavily backed the bill.
