For Bay Area residents to help save Caltrain electrification – and prevent cuts to BART, Amtrak, and transit around the country – we need allies. Read on for powerful steps you can take to engage these allies.

Reaching the inland opponents to electrification

Our Congressional representatives in the Bay Area are typically staunch supporters of Caltrain, transit, and rail. The key members of Congress blocking Caltrain electrification are inland. Fortunately, voters in the districts of opponents travel to and from the Bay Area every day, on trains including ACE, Capitol Corridor, and the San Joaquin lines.

If you live or work in or near San Jose, Santa Clara, San Francisco or Oakland, you have a super-power – you can go to the platforms for these trains and let riders know that their members of Congress are blocking improvements to Caltrain, and likely also threatening improvements to BART and other transit and rail systems around the country. Our allies who ride the regional trains can call their own members of congress and tell them to unblock funding for Caltrain electrification and other projects around the region and nation.

Here are tools you can use to flyer platforms in San Jose, Santa Clara, San Francisco and Oakland to reach inland voters who can influence their members of Congress. If you have any questions about this action, please ask – and please let us know how it goes – send use a note at friends@friendsofcaltrain.com

The Save Transit Campaign – allies around the country

If the regional stations aren’t convenient for you, or flyering platforms is not something you’re comfortable doing, you can help empower allies around the country from your computer indoors. Friends of Caltrain, TransForm and others have joined a regional network of transit advocacy groups around the country, including places like Utah, Kentucky, and Indiana that tend to vote differently from the Bay Area. Our allies around the country are calling their own members of congress and getting their position on record. See the SaveTransit.us site for quotes.

You can volunteer to keep this site up to date with quotes. Our allies are collecting the quotes – all you need is 15 minutes of your time to post a quote on a web page, and enough computer skill to update a WordPress page. If you can send an email, you can do this. If you have a few minutes to help with this campaign, let us know at friends@friendsofcaltrain.com.

As Bay Area residents, there is only so much we can do alone to influence the current state of affairs in DC. But working with allies around the state and around the country, we have greater power to save Caltrain and save transit.

Thank you!