CHICO — Proponents of passenger train service between Chico and Sacramento predict nearly 600,000 rides a year will be purchased by north valley residents.
An online public workshop is set for Wednesday to provide an update on progress on the plan. The meeting is at 5 p.m., via Zoom. You can register for the session at
During the workshop, details of a draft strategic plan for the train service will be presented and feedback will be taken. A formal public review period for the plan is expected to begin in January.
Actual train service would not begin until July 2031, as environmental approvals and as much as $530 million in construction will be required.
Currently, the North Valley Rail plan calls for four trains daily each direction between Chico and Sacramento. Two trips southbound in the morning and two trips northbound in the evening are timed for commuters who work in Sacramento but live in the north state.
The trains would also stop in Gridley, Marysville, Plumas Lake and Natomas on the way to Sacramento. Shuttle services are planned between Oroville and Gridley and Natomas and the Sacramento airport in coordination with the train schedule.
It would take about 70 minutes to ride from Chico to Natomas; 90 minutes to midtown Sacramento.
For north state residents wanting to go farther, the new trains would be scheduled to arrive in Stockton at times for convenient transfers to existing trains running to San Jose and the East Bay. A connection in Merced to the high speed rail project now under construction, would carry riders as far as Bakersfield.
Rail backers estimate that each year, 592,100 passengers would ride the new trains to and from the stations in Chico, Gridley, Marysville and Plumas Lake. That’s about 1,600 riders a day. Divided between the eight trains, that would average about 200 each trip, although the weekday commuter trains could be expected to get higher ridership.
Chico would account for 198,400 riders; Gridley and Oroville, 91,900; Marysville, 201,700; and Plumas Lake, 113,900.
According to U.S. Census data for 2019, 3,500 Butte County residents were commuting daily to Sacramento, and another 3,400 were commuting to Yuba or Sutter Counties. From Yuba and Sutter counties, 11,100 were commuting to Sacramento daily.
The Butte County Association of Governments will be hosting Wednesday’s Zoom workshop. It is the lead agency in the project, in partnership with the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, CalTrans and the Union Pacific Railroad.
More information is available on BCAG’s website at Click on the North Valley Rail link.