Caltrain's plan to electrify its trains is about to roll through Palo Alto, where crews are preparing to install nearly 200 poles along the railroad tracks.

The agency is now in the midst of electrifying the 51-mile stretch between San Francisco and San Jose, a project that will allow Caltrain to increase its service from five to six trains per hour in each direction during peak commute hours. The project began in 2017 in San Mateo County and in San Jose and is now entering its next phases in San Francisco and north Santa Clara County.

The project involves installing 3,000 poles throughout the 51-mile segment to support the overhead wires that will power the system. This includes 196 poles in Palo Alto, Caltrain's Public Involvement Manager Greg Parks said Tuesday night during a community meeting on the project at Rinconada Library. The poles will range in height from 30 feet to 50 feet and they will be spaced about 180 feet apart.

To date, the agency's contractors have been pruning trees and installing foundation, which entails excavating soil and placing rebar into the ground. In February, Caltrain will start installing poles and wires. The work is expected to be completed this fall.

Later this year, Caltrain plans to build a paralleling station on agency-owned property adjacent to 195 Page Mill Road, about a block south of Oregon Expressway. The unmanned station will include two box-like structures (a transformer and a control house) and two 50-foot-tall gantries, which are steel structures that support wires that connect to the overhead contact system and power the trains. According to the agency, one gantry will be installed near the transformer, while the other would go up on the other side of the tracks.

The paralleling station is needed to maintain and regulate the power to the electrified train system, ensuring that the current is running at 25 kilovolts, Parks said. It is one of seven stations that are being installed as part of the project. Caltrain plans to add vegetation and possibly plant trees to screen the equipment.

Work on the electrification project will take place day and night, with occasional 24-hour work on the weekends, according to a handout provided at the meeting. The agency plans to use acoustical noise blankets and position lights away from homes and businesses to minimize impact, according to staff.

Staff also indicated at the meeting that the project would likely require a lane closure at Alma Street.

Several residents asked at the meeting about the impact of Caltrain's electrification project on Palo Alto's ongoing effort to achieve grade separation, the redesign of the rail crossings so that train tracks and roads would not intersect. That project is driven by expectations that Caltrain will continue to expand its service, creating massive backups at rail crossings as gate-down times increase.

Parks said Caltrain is working closely with the city of Palo Alto and other cities that are pursuing grade separation. The agencies are sharing plans and cities are aware of Caltrain's plans to build the overhead system, which has been in the works for three years.

"As you know, Palo Alto is in the planning phase of what they're going to do with grade crossings and we're not touching the grade crossing or separating grade crossings as part of this project," Parks said.

Casey Fromson, Caltrain's director of communication and government affairs, also assured residents that the project would not preclude cities up and down the corridor from pursuing their plans for grade separation.

In Palo Alto, where the City Council has a goal of choosing its preferred alternative for grade separation by this spring, the actual construction isn't expected to be completed until 2030. Fromson noted that if Caltrain were to wait for all the cities to complete their grade separation projects, it would never be able to move ahead with electrification. She also indicated that Caltrain would be able to relocate its equipment to accommodate future designs.

"Moving poles and wires, as you see, is not a ton of work," Fromson said. "It's not ideal, but it wouldn't be the end of the world."

View Caltrain's fact sheet on the upcoming electrification work in Palo Alto, including a timeline of construction activities, here.