Two years ago I wrote an op-ed piece for the Sacramento Bee arguing that California would be wise to invest a fraction of its high speed rail funds into modernizing the Capitol Corridor, the fastest growing intercity rail service in America, with the goal of reducing travel time to one hour between the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. This would be a game changer for the Northern California mega-region to compete successfully in the global economy. Similar improvements could be made to the Los Angeles San-Diego corridor as well. The Capitol Corridor Vision Implementation Plan adopted by its Board on November 16, 2016, shows that the vision I wrote about in 2014 is achievable. In an unprecedented partnership, the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council and the Bay Area Council are teaming up on a coordinated strategy to promote closer ties between Sacramento and the Bay Area and modernization of the Capitol Corridor as key to the success of the evolving Northern California mega-region. As GSAC CEO Barry Broome recently told the Sacramento Bee: “Our No. 1 goal as a mega-region partnership is to solve that rail transportation (link) between downtown San Francisco and downtown Sacramento. If we can get that to 60 minutes, that would completely change the economic condition of Northern California.”

Read my February 15, 2014 article here http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article2591212.html or just click on the source button below.

Read more about the joint economic strategy of the Greater Sacramento Area Economic Council and the Bay Area Council here http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article105918917.html