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The Capitol Corridor is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two points most trains operate between, San Jose (which was the first state capital of California) and Sacramento (the current capital, with the State Capitol building). The route runs roughly parallel to I-880 and I-80. A single daily round trip runs between San Jose and Auburn, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Capitol Corridor trains started in 1991.
Like all regional trains in California, the Capitol Corridor is operated by a joint powers authority. The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) is governed by a board that includes two elected representatives from each of eight counties the train travels through. The CCJPA contracts with the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District to provide day-to-day management of the service, Amtrak to operate the trains, and Transit Services America to maintain the rolling stock (locomotives and passenger cars). Caltrans provides the funding to operate the service and also owns the rolling stock.
By the end of the 1930s, the SP operated five daily local round trips plus a number of long-distance trains between Oakland and Sacramento. The Oakland Lark and an unnamed local train (an Oakland connection for the Coast Daylight) provided local service between Oakland and San Jose on the Coast Line. The inland Niles Subdivision was served by a daily Oakland–Tracy local and a commute-timed Oakland–San Jose local (which ran via Centerville and part of the Coast Line on the northbound trip and Milpitas southbound).
The increasing prevalence of auto ownership and improvements in local roads meant that numerous commuters began to drive their own vehicles rather than take the train. The decline in ridership resulted in SP discontinuing the Oakland–San Jose trip on the Niles Subdivision on September 29, 1940, followed by ending the Oakland–Tracy trip in 1941. The two Oakland–San Jose trips on the Coast Line were discontinued on May 1, 1960. The last local service between Oakland and Sacramento was the Senator, discontinued by the SP on May 31, 1962 (though long-distance service continued).
Of the three lines, only the Coast Starlight ran between San Jose and Sacramento—once a day in each direction, and at inconvenient times (southbound early in the morning, northbound in the evening). In 1977, Amtrak approved an additional Oakland–Sacramento round trip, the Sacramentan; the service was never operated.
In 1990, California voters passed two ballot propositions providing $105 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to expand service along the route. The new service, named Capitols, debuted on December 12, 1991, with three daily round trips between San Jose and Sacramento. Of these, a single round trip continued to Roseville, an eastern Sacramento suburb.
One of the ballot propositions, Proposition 116, provided the name Capitol Corridor—so named because it links the location of California's first state capital, San Jose, with the current capital, Sacramento. State Capitol buildings were operated in each city. The service was known as the Capitols until April 29, 2001, when Amtrak renamed it the Capitol Corridor.
After financial concerns in the mid-1990s, service was gradually increased from the original three daily round trips. A fourth round trip was added in April 1996, a fifth in November 1998, and a sixth in February 1999. One daily round trip was extended east to via and on January 26, 1998. The trip was cut back to Auburn (with the Rocklin stop retained) on February 27, 2000.
Installation of positive train control along the route was completed by November 2018. In response to low ridership as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Capitol Corridor schedule was reduced to five daily trips on March 21, 2020, with discontinued Auburn service and many trips ending in Oakland. Three runs were added back on June 1 and Auburn service restored, but the route wasn't back to full service until December 8th, 2025.
The 2018 Senate Bill 1 allocated $93 million in funds for the Capitol Corridor, partially for planning the realignment to the Coast Subdivision. , the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the realignment (branded as South Bay Connect) is expected to be completed at the end of 2020, followed by the Final Environmental Impact Report a year later. Design is to take place in 2022–23, with construction beginning in 2024. The project is to have a single new station at the Ardenwood Park & Ride in Fremont; stations at Hayward (at SR 92) and Newark Junction were considered but rejected.
A third track between Sacramento and Roseville is planned to start construction in 2021, which would allow an initial increase from one round trip per day to three, with plans for up to ten. Extension east to Reno, Nevada was deemed unlikely in the Vision Implementation Plan due to heavy freight traffic over Donner Pass and lack of funding, though plans for such an expansion were studied in 2022 with 83% of respondents indicating they would use the service if more frequent passenger rail were provided between Sacramento and Reno.
Extending service to downtown San Francisco by crossing the bay is being considered as part of a proposed second Transbay Tube. A study of a joint project providing a second crossing for BART began in 2019. San Francisco has not had direct intercity rail service since 1971.
The Capitol Corridor is used by commuters between the Sacramento area and the Bay Area as an alternative to driving on congested Interstate 80. Monthly passes and discounted trip tickets are available. Many politicians, lobbyists, and aides live in the Bay Area and commute to their jobs in Sacramento, including those connecting to the train via Amtrak Thruway from San Francisco, while workers in the Oakland, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley employment centers take the Capitol Corridor trains from their less expensive homes in Solano County and the Sacramento metropolitan area.
Starting on August 28, 2006, the Capitol Corridor had 16 weekday trains each way between Oakland and Sacramento, up from twelve in 2005 and three in 1992. (Seven of the sixteen ran to/from San Jose.) According to its management, ridership on the Capitol Corridor trains tripled between 1998 and 2005. Capitol Corridor's Largest Service Increase Ever Brings More Direct Trains To Sacramento On August 13, 2012, the Capitol Corridor dropped from 16 to 15 weekday round trips between Oakland and Sacramento; one round trip was discontinued due to high fuel costs, low ridership, and a new ability to store an extra train overnight in a Sacramento railyard. As of December 8th, 2025, the Capitol Corridor has resumed full service after running a reduced number of trains since the COVID-19 pandemic and makes a total of 15 weekday round trips.
As of December 2025, trains run as follows:
| Amtrak Thruway: 20 (Sacramento–Reno) | |
| FAST | |
| AC Transit | |
| AC Transit | |
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority is governed by a board of directors which consists of 16 representatives from its member agencies:
The Charger locomotives meet EPA Tier IV emission standards and are capable of operating at 125 mph in revenue service. Many of the F59PHI have been re-engined to meet more stringent EPA Tier II emission standards.
These locomotives are owned by Caltrans and carry its CDTX . Amtrak-owned locomotives are also occasionally used on the Capitol Corridor, including the P42DC.
Caltrans also owns several Surfliner bi-level cars that are used on some Capitol Corridor trainsets. The newer cars look very similar to the California Car fleet but feature reclining seats, open overhead luggage racks, and a restroom on the upper level of each car.
The bi-level cars have doors that can operated remotely on either side of the train from a single point of control. This feature allows the operator to maximize passenger flow in boarding and alighting operations, and thereby minimizing station dwell time.
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