page_title: History of rail transportation in California
section_title: Commuter rail
hierarchical_section_title: History of rail transportation in California / 20th century / Passenger rail / Commuter rail
caption_attribution_description: English: A Roger Puta Photograph
context_page_description: The establishment of America's transcontinental rail lines securely linked California to the rest of the country, and the far-reaching transportation systems that grew out of them during the century that followed contributed to the state's social, political, and economic development. When California was admitted as a state to the United States in 1850, and for nearly two decades thereafter, it was in many ways isolated, an outpost on the Pacific, until the First Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869.
  Passenger rail transportation declined in the early- and mid-20th Century with the rise of the state's car culture and road system. It has since undergone something of a renaissance, with the introduction of services such as Metrolink, Coaster, Caltrain, Amtrak California, and others. On November 4, 2008, the People of California passed Proposition 1a, which helped provide financing for a high-speed rail line.
context_section_description: One service spared from discontinuance was the Southern Pacific Peninsula Commute, operational in some form since 1863. The railroad had long petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission to end the service, but remained subsidized by the state. Caltrans renamed it Caltrain in 1987. The overseeing joint powers authority acquired the line in 1991, and eventually took over responsibility for operating the service. By 1988, it was the only commuter rail being operated in the state.
  An attempt to start commuter rail service in Los Angeles was undertaken in 1982, although CalTrain service would last fewer than six months. Amtrak initiated Orange County Commuter service in 1990 under the San Diegans brand, but a more regional approach was deemed necessary. Southern Pacific sold 175 miles (282 km) of track to the newly-formed Southern California Regional Rail Authority in 1991, which became the nucleus of the Metrolink commuter rail network when it opened one year later. The system would consist of six lines by the end of the millennium, including assumed operation of the Orange County service.
  The North San Diego County Transit Development Board was created in 1975 to consolidate and improve transit in northern San Diego County. Planning began for a San Diego–Oceanside commuter rail line, then called Coast Express Rail, in 1982. The Board established the San Diego Northern Railway Corporation (SDNR) - a nonprofit operating subsidiary - in 1994, and purchased the 41 miles (66 km) of the Surf Line within San Diego County plus the 22-mile (35 km) Escondido Branch from the Santa Fe Railway that year.
  By the 90s, growth in the Tri-Valley and the middle Central Valley had led to congestion on local freeways while providing little access to public transit. In May 1997, the Altamont Commuter Express Joint Powers Authority was formed by the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and Alameda Congestion Management Agency with the intent to establish commuter rail service over the Altamont Pass and Niles Canyon. The Altamont Commuter Express, connecting San Joaquin County and the Bay Area, then began operations in 1998.
caption: Peninsula Commute train at Brisbane, April 1982
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