The Sacramento Regional Transit District on Saturday opened a 7.4-mile light-rail extension to Folsom.
The Folsom extension adds to a 2.8 mile extension of the same line that opened 16 months earlier, and gives city residents the option of taking a train 23 miles west into downtown Sacramento.
The light-rail line parallels the congested U.S. Highway 50, and riders jammed the trains at standing-room only levels during its first rush-hour runs on Monday, according to a published report.
This extension adds mobility options for everyone in our community and offers real solutions for traffic congestion and air quality, which are two of the most critical issues facing our region, transit board chairman David Sander said in a press release announcing the new service.
The final part of the Amtrak/Folsom Corridor Project is slated to extend the other end of the Folsom line a half-mile to the Sacramento Amtrak station by September 2006. The entire project is projected to cost $255 million.
Funding sources included $100 million from Proposition 116, a 1990 California ballot measure that authorized $2 billion in state general obligation bonds for rail and mass transit projects. The transit district also issued $18 million in certificates of participation in 2003 through the California Transit Finance Corp. to finance the purchase of light-rail trains and equipment.
