page_title: San Joaquins
section_title: Planned expansion
hierarchical_section_title: San Joaquins / History / Planned expansion
caption_attribution_description: English: A map of the various segments of the California high-speed rail system
context_page_description: The San Joaquins is a passenger train service operated by Amtrak in California's San Joaquin Valley. Seven daily round trips run between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton, where the route splits to Oakland or Sacramento.
  The San Joaquins service is unique in the state and nation because of its extensive network of dedicated Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach bus routes that are critical to the performance of the service. Over 55% of passengers on the service use an Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach during part of their trip. Amtrak Thruway Motorcoaches are timed to meet trains and offer connections to points in Southern California, the city of San Francisco, the Central Coast, the North Coast, the High Desert, Redding, Reno, and the Yosemite Valley.
  The San Joaquins is Amtrak's seventh-busiest service in the nation and the railroad's third-busiest in the state of California. During fiscal year 2019, the service carried 1,071,190 passengers, a 0.7% decrease from the prior year.
  Like all regional trains in California, the San Joaquins service is operated by a joint powers authority.
context_section_description: As of 2020 the agency is increasing capacity on its routes to avoid conflicts with freight trains and add additional trips as well as plan for connections to the California High-Speed Rail system. The level junction in Stockton where the two San Joaquin routes divert was the busiest rail junction in the state by 2019 – the north-south Union Pacific line is planned to be elevated over the BNSF line. Two additional Sacramento round trips are planned to be added, routed over the Union Pacific Railroad Sacramento Subdivision north of Stockton. Unlike the 1999-initiated route on the Fresno Subdivision, the Sacramento Subdivision has spare capacity to allow the increased service. Six new stations are planned: Lodi (separate from the Lodi Transit Station), Elk Grove, three locations in Sacramento, and Natomas. The Sacramento Subdivision trains will not serve the existing Sacramento Valley Station, but RT Light Rail connections and a shuttle bus to Sacramento International Airport are planned elsewhere. These improvements are being done in cooperation with Altamont Corridor Express (ACE), which will share the route to Natomas from Stockton and add an additional branch south to Ceres in 2023 with an extension to Merced in 2027. When the Natomas runs are initiated, one existing Oakland trip is planned to terminate at Stockton-Downtown, freeing a slot for a full Natomas to Bakersfield roud-trip while continuing to provide five trips from the Bay Area.
  Upon completion of California High-Speed Rail's initial operating segment, some trains are expected to terminate at that system's new Merced station to act as a feeder to high-speed service. A new rail link is planned to run between the BNSF line currently used and the Union Pacific subdivision on which that station is planned in order to facilitate trips and transfers. Sacramento to Merced service is thus planned to increase in frequency to hourly service. At that point, BNSF train slots previously used for runs between Merced and Bakersfield could be retained as shuttle services to supplement high-speed services.
  As of 2019, Oakland to Bakersfield trips take just over six hours, which requires an expensive crew change in Merced. The SJJPA wishes to reduce travel times to eliminate this expense, which may involve terminating some trains at Emeryville, skipping stops on some trains, increasing current 79-mile-per-hour (127 km/h) speeds to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), and/or operational improvements like decreasing dwell times. Longer-term proposals include extending Oakland trains to Oakland Coliseum station to provide service to Oakland International Airport and a second BART connection; routing some trains via the ACE route through the Tri-Valley; consolidating all Stockton service at Robert J. Cabral Station; and extensions to Marysville/Yuba City, Oroville, or Redding. The SJJPA ultimately plans to increase Sacramento service to hourly headways.
caption: 2013 map of planned intercity rail improvements in California
exif: {}