Transit Talk with the General Manager

Citrus Heights 95610, CA:  Gold Line passengers are experiencing some confusion. When SacRT said new S700 trains were starting service on Sept 1 for Gold Line and Sept 3 for Green Line, various riders were under the impression that only Blue Line would stay with the older model. However, there's some uncertainty because riders encounter both new and previous models along Gold Line. Therefore, would it be possible for Gold Line to run only new S700 trains? If not yet, what strategy do you recommend for riders to know where to position themselves in advance for Gold Line stops, especially those who may need assistance?

Reply:  We initially stated running S700 trains on both the Gold Line and Green Line, but they were only single-car trains. Due to the popularity of the S700s, we changed our plan to accommodate the increased ridership levels by running two-car trains on the Gold Line. It’s our goal in the next couple of weeks to have all S700 trains on the Gold Line and Green Line. Thanks for your patience.

Sacramento , CA:  Will RT be helping out with buses and operators for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics? Los Angeles Metro doesn't have enough operators and buses to provide transportation during the Car Free Olympic Games.

Reply:  Thanks for the question and it is exciting Los Angeles will host the olympic games in 2028. While it is possible we may be asked to assist, it is too early to say at this point.

sacramento, CA:  The new low deck trains have substantially louder bell and loudspeaker levels. I live adjacent to the 48st station and was shocked by the loud bells and speaker levels particularly in the evening. Reduce the decibel levels equal to the older trains and eliminate automated messages in the evening hours in residential areas which is the current protocol.

Reply:  Hello. Staff measured the sound levels from the new fleet and found the announcements to be higher than expected. SacRT has asked Siemens to reduce the volume of the outdoor announcements by 10% to match the existing fleet.

Sacramento, CA:  How is SacRT planning to use its land properties to help make itself profitable for the future? Will you sell land for TOD or maybe rent and become a landlord of sorts? History and other current transit agencies have shown that they made money for their agencies more from selling/renting the land by the tracks rather than by the fare box. Maybe you can purchase land for future maintenance yards in “empty areas” around the region.

Reply:  Thank you for the question. Over the last several years, SacRT has sold property that has resulted in Transit Oriented Development. Prime examples include the Wexler apartments at 65th Street and the Salvator apartments on Arden Way. We are currently finalizing a faciltities masterplan that will identify needs for various properties. We hope to make additional underutilized property available for TOD's in the near future.

Rancho Cordova, CA:  Congratulations on the S700 low floor vehicles starting service on the Gold and Green Lines this week! I was wondering is the 15 minute Passing Track Folsom Project is still on track of completion and opening service at the end of October? And if the celebration will be the day of service reopens to Historic Folsom or if service to Historic Folsom resume days before a celebration just like when the S700s enter service Sep 1st and celebration was on Sep 3rd? Also, will there be a signaling temporary bus bridge again between Sunrise and Historic Folsom before 15 minute Folsom service starts?

Reply:  Construction continues on schedule, but we do not have a specific date yet for its completion, and there will have to be some time to run unoccupied vehicles to test the new track. There are many considerations that go into planning an opening ceremony for this project, including availability of dignitaries and other partners. So, I apologize that I can't answer your question more specifically.

sacramento, CA:  as a former transportation engineer I am familiar with the FTA allowing sum latitude in the use of horns in dense residential zones. Reduce noise level and duration of both as requested in prior

Reply:  We have compared the qualification testing for the train horn and it is in compliance with the general order. Order 3.04 AUDIBLE WARNING DEVICES. Every LRV shall be equipped with a bell or horn capable of producing a clearly audible warning measuring at least 75 dBA at a distance of 100 feet from the vehicle. In addition, every LRV operating on separate right-of-way over motor vehicle grade crossings shall be equipped with a horn or whistle capable of producing a clearly audible warning measuring at least 85 dBA at a distance of 100 feet from the LRV. With that said, yes, we do have some latitude and we are looking at how when and where we can reduce the volume and still stay within the legal requirements.

Rancho Cordova, CA:  I heard the S700 low floor trains on the Gold Line will be running single car and with old high floor trains as final adjustments are being done to the S700s still for the next few weeks. I was wondering if when those adjustments are made, is their enough cars to run most the S700s as two car trains? Also, I'm hearing the bike policy was changed from 2 bikes per car to 4 bikes per car. Is this correct?

Reply:  As we work to onboard more of the low-floor light rail trains, SacRT will operate two car trains during peak hours when they are needed the most, and may only operate one-car trains at other hours. There is room at both ends of each car for two bicycles, so yes, they can accommodate four - this policy has not changed.

Sacramento, CA:  I think most people were under the impression that raising the station platforms would make them flush with the floor of the new trains, allowing people with mobility issues or carrying bikes to simply roll forward without necessarily having to deploy the ramp. There is still a slight step up to board the train from the platform. Stations were closed for over a year to raise the station platforms. Can you explain why the platforms are not aligned with the height of the floor of the new trains?

Reply:  If the stations were raised to the level of the new cars, they would become incompatible with our legacy fleet vehicle steps, which will remain in service for a number of years. Therefore, the new fleet is equipped with a bridge plate for passengers unable to navigate the small step into the low floor cars. This design was modeled after other transit agencies, such as San Diego, that underwent a similar transition.

Carmichael, CA:  Are you receiving questions?

Reply:  Yes

Sacramento, CA:  Could you explain why the Green Line got priority for the new low floor vehicles, given the extremely low ridership on that line, and the fact that bus route #11 almost covers the entire route of the Green Line? Shouldn't these new cars have been 100% allocated to the Gold Line so you didn't have to run 1 car trains on the Gold Line during rush hour?

Reply:  The Green Line only requires one train car for daily service. If we need an additional low-floor train for service, it will be moved to the Gold Line. We appreciate your patience.

Sacramento, CA:  Because the Gold Line is now using some old train cars and some new cars, there is widespread confusion among riders with mobility, vision or hearing issues where they should stand to board trains. Sometimes there are announcements on the speaker systems about what kind of train is arriving next, but not consistently. Trains stopping twice at each station just causes delays and missed bus connections. What is RT's plan to fix this situation?

Reply:  We apologize for the confusion. We anticipate having enough new vehicles within a few weeks to allow us to run only the new S700 vehicles on the Gold Line.

sacramento, CA:  the blue line trains are very poorly upkept and frequently riddled with litter and grime, among other things. so, the new train cars are very much needed and wanted. why are the new cars expected to be on the blue line in 2027? that seems incredibly far away

Reply:  Thank you for the feedback. SacRT has received grant funding to purchase new light rail vehicles. The initial funding was specific to the Gold Line, but SacRT has received funding for the Blue Line as well. there are currently 25 Light Rail vehicles in production at Siemens in South Sacramento and station conversions on the Blue Line are set to start this year.

sacramento, CA:  new low deck are much loader than older trains. you need to lower the horn and speaker to match the older trains decibel level to mitigate for residents in residential areas

Reply:  As shared in a previous response, SacRT has requested to lowed the decibel level.

Sacramento, CA:  Is SacRT planning on having a total system reevaluation next year? To reestablish what your mandate is regarding service, to get folks where they want to go and when they want to get there? Will this exercise be open to the public through workshops and other outreach? I would like to see a goal of any address in our region having access to transit options that are reasonable to connect to at the first mile and last mile. Maybe a long walk or short bike ride to a bus stop or final destination from a bus stop.

Reply:  Yes, early next year, we'll be updating our Short Range Transit Plan. That will be followed by a Long-Range Plan update. These kinds of projects are always exercises in deciding whether to spread resources over a large area, but somewhat thin, or concentrate them on higher-demand areas. You may be interested to review some of our stats on coverage under our Title VI program, Appendix G. Today, we're authorized to serve an area of 434 square miles, with 1.5 million residents. Within 3/4-mile of our all-day routes, we cover 268 square miles and 1.3 million residents (87 percent). If you look at only frequent service, our 3/4-mile catchment is 84 square miles and 413,000 residents. The transit consultant Jarrett Walker, who helped us with our last major route restructuring, is fond of assessing how much a system focuses on frequency over coverage. You could look at the 413,000 residents that get frequent service over the 1.3 million who are covered by basic service, and perhaps say that our network is about 32 percent focused on frequency.

Sacramento, CA:  Wondering if RT has considered any of the following, in light of the funding challenges to build out the Green Line through Natomas and to the airport: 1) Extend route 11 and/or 13 to the airport, even just on some trips. 2) Add 1 stop somewhere in Natomas (possibly Truxel & San Juan, or another intersection with multiple bus connections from outside the grid) to route 142. 3) Work with Yolobus to add 1 stop somewhere in Natomas to routes 42A and 42B. Seems like it would increase the usefulness of the existing service to the airport to a wider range of potential riders, while helping to boost ridership and support for funding for the Green Line extension. Since there is no existing service from Natomas (or anywhere other than downtown, Davis and Woodland) to the airport, it's harder to quantify what those numbers would look like on a light rail line. Cities like Portland used a similar approach to increase support and funding for their Red Line in the late 1990s - two bus lines provided non-express service from downtown out to PDX, serving several neighborhoods in between.

Reply:  Thanks for the suggestion. Extending Route 11 to the airport is in our Short Range Transit Plan (https://www.sacrt.com/wp-content/uploads/Exhibit-A_SRTP_Document_FY22-27.pdf), and yes, the idea is it would be a precursor to light rail, providing a level of service, even just every 30 minutes, that’s a lot better than nothing, and as ridership grows over time, it makes all the more sense to “upgrade” to light rail. We have also considered some of the changes you mentioned to Route 13 and 142, although they haven’t penciled out as strong. Likewise, it’s probably fairly costly for Yolobus to go off-route that much on their Route 42, but that’s a question for them. Early next year, we’ll be doing an update to our SRTP, so stay tuned, you may want to get involved!

Carmichael, CA:  I learned recently that light rail is limiting bicycle space to four at any time. Can this be revisited or can anything be mounted on cars to accommodate more bikes? To meet our climate goals we need more bikes and RT’s new position is a step backward.

Reply:  Thank you for your comments, especially related to climate goals. As you know, there is a fine balance to safely accommodate persons with disabilities using mobility devices and space for bicycles in each train car. The policy related to the number of bicycles has not changed with the introduction of the new low-floor trains and the legacy fleet. For more information, visit https://www.sacrt.com/biking-with-rt/

Sacramento, CA:  Besides the overall S700 roll out, what is the exact reason or a specific example for the significant amount of delays on gold line this week? Train clearly missed on Hazel Westbound so had to wait extra 30 minutes in the 100F heat.

Reply:  First, thank you for riding light rail. Unfortunately, I'm not able tell you why your specific train was delayed without knowing exactly when and where; however, I apologize for the inconvenience. I do know that someone driving a car hit a large SMUD power pole in Rancho Cordova along Folsom Boulevard yesterday, which required SMUD to make emergency repairs later in the day. That required us to put a bus bridge in place from approximately 6 p.m. into this morning. The loss of power caused system delays.

Sacramento, CA:  How long will it be until full integration of the new trains on the Gold Line? In my experience this week, there haven’t been any consistency in the types of trains coming, which leaves people uncertain if they should use the disabled ramp or wait on the platform. There haven’t been announcements of the type of train coming as promised. This is especially noticeable at university/65th, where it’s more busy and more types of people are coming on and off the trains.

Reply:  We initially stated running S700 trains on both the Gold Line and Green Line, but they were only single-car trains. Due to the popularity of the S700s, we changed our plan to accommodate the increased ridership levels by running two-car trains on the Gold Line. It’s our goal in the next couple of weeks to have all S700 trains on the Gold Line and Green Line. Thanks for you patience.

Fair Oaks, CA:  Are there any plans to increase the general bus service frequency? The current 30-60 minute frequency is very detering for commuters like me who don't have a consistent schedule. Also with the removal of the F30 line in Folsom, are there plans to revamp the F10 route to accommodate travel to the zoo and/or prison?

Reply:  We’ll be doing an update to our Short Range Transit Plan, starting early next year. In 2019, we did a major route restructuring that basically “flattened” the system, reallocating hours from commuter service and rush hour to off-peak and weekend service. Prior to that, we had gaps in our Sunday network that excluded entire neighborhoods, and almost all our weekend service was hourly. We didn’t know there was going to be a pandemic, but reallocating to weekends and off-peak proved to be a good move when that happened, because commuter ridership disappeared overnight, while transit-dependent riders continued to use the system. Even today, in Elk Grove, for example we have lost 4 of 5 commuters we used to have. We’d love to run better headways on all the routes, but as you may know, in Sacramento County, we get only 1/12 the sales tax revenue, per person, that they get even in places like Los Angeles and Dallas. For the current year, we’ve had to roll back even some minor improvements that we had hoped to make, so we have to be cautious with where we spend our resources. We averaged only 1 to 2 boardings per day on the F30 Folsom line, so we feel that SmaRT Ride is a reasonable solution for persons who used to use F30.

Folsom, CA:  Is another passing track planned for approach to Hazel Light Rail station?

Reply:  SacRT has designed an additional passing track near Hazel for additional service reliability. Funding would still need to be secured.

Carmichael, CA:  RT should evaluate the AC use on the trains. They’re usually kept at ~65 degrees even with doors constantly opening and closing. This is unnecessary in a climate-constrained world.

Reply:  SacRT is evaluating the HVAC systems on the new S700 vehicles, but all LRVs are set at 72 degrees. That temperature is tough to maintain when all the doors are open at a station stop.