Passenger Trains > Caltrans to Lease Caltrain's Three F40PH-2C's

Board of Directors of the  Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board has now approved
to execute a agreement with Caltrans for the leasing out of F40PH-2's 920-922, 
13 Bombardier coaches and 3 Bombardier cab cars.  They will be used on Capitol
Corridor and San Joaquins services.

The lease will be for 5 years with an option for permanent transfer of ownership.
Caltrain will see $2.14M per year in revenue from the lease and save $500,000 a year
in maintenance and insurance costs.

The following document summarizes the staff report from this past July on pages 8-9
with pages 10-12 reporting on final approval:

https://www.caltrain.com/media/35755/download

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I thought they were protecting the Gilroy service.
Regards, Jim Evans

Caltrain has 41 of these Bombardier cars. It currently uses 12 cars in daily service with 4 consists of 3 cars each.  Currently ridership is increasing on some parts of the line with a 75% increase in ridership in recent months over last. year. So cars are needed for lengthening consists for growth, expansion, maintenance, spares, refurbishment, and remote protect cars. Even with say another 12 cars for those purposes, there is certainly enough room with 41 cars total to lease 16 cars.  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/25 15:50 by stevef.

Very interesting about this plan! Every bit of equipment is definitely needed for the Caltrans services operated by Amtrak. It’s going to be very interesting to hear the reviews of the seats. They are probably fine when traveling on the Capitol Corridor trains but not sure if they will feel very comfortable after traveling more than a few hours on the San Joaquins.

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When are they supposed to start?

So they are doing this, per the resolution, because they are "short" on passenger rail equipment. What implication does this have on the California Venture cars for the San Joaquins and Capitol Corridor trains. This seems somewhat surprising. It's cited that this equipment is ready for service and they can achieve cross-synergy. OK. 

I would be surprised if the Bombardiers appeared on the San Joaquins.  Half of the
Capitol Corridor roundtrips make the short run from Sacramento Oakland only
(not on to San Jose)in less than two hours running time and that would seem to be a
good fit for the Caltrain equipment.  That's more like a commute run than a corridor
service and they can then better justify the lack of a cafe car.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/25 17:05 by milepost20.

The seats in these Bombardier cars have no adjustment at all, they're commuter seats plain and simple. 

Too bad they sent the rest of the F40s to Peru.  Could have used these reliable workhorses here.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

The Bombardier Cars really should be restricted to the Capitol Corridor trains-that’s basically its own commuter service. Many are probably not spending more than two hours on Capitol Corridor trains and the Bombardier Cars would probably have decent seats for traveling on Capitol Corridor trains. The JPA and Caltrans really need to get the ball rolling on getting more Siemens Venture cars into service on the San Joaquins.

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