Service on Green Line light rail, which runs from 13th Street Station to 7th & Richards/Township 9 Station in the River District, is now suspended for construction, through summer 2026. As with any construction project, the end date is uncertain. STAR has posted about the existing Green Line before: Green Line and Route 11 and SacRT Route 11 30-minute service.

The 7th & Richards/Township 9 station itself was built largely with developer money, but the rest of the infrastructure was funded by SacRT. There may have been a feeling in SacRT that once the first segment of the Green Line was built, no one could argue against it continuing to the airport. Ridership has always been very low, and continues to be very low even though some development is occurring around the 7th & Richards/Township 9 station. The majority of users have been people going to and from the Greyhound station along Richards, a short walk away. Ultimately, Greyhound service will be moved to Sacramento Valley Station and the Richards bus station will be closed. Greyhound/FlixBus is closing most city bus stations. There is a new large state office complex at 7th Street & Richards Blvd. It is not clear whether those state workers will be transit users. A huge parking structure has been built, encouraging workers to drive, not transit. There is also some housing development going on.

A new station is being constructed in the Railyards, which is the main reason for the Green Line closure. A new soccer stadium is likely, but has not started construction, and a major Kaiser Permanente facility is planned, but has not started construction. Housing has been talked about, but other than the two multi-family complexes along 6th Street, nothing else is planned. As the Railyards and River District develop, there may be more demand for transit service, but it does not exist now.

The concept of Green Line to the Airport appears to be dead. The line would be very expensive to build, about $2 billion if it were started today, and very expensive to operate. Funding for either is unlikely. There are also questions about how the line would cross the American River. The city’s proposal for an all-modes bridge at Truxel Road is opposed by many for its cost and impact on the American River Parkway, and would likely be stopped by a lawsuit. A transit-walking-bicycling bridge would not likely be opposed, but would then be funded by SacRT, which does not have the funds nor an active grant application to seek them. Two ideas that have been talked about to replace the Green Line concept are a bus from downtown to the airport along the freeway, and an enhanced bus Route 11, perhaps a BRT (bus rapid transit) that would serve both Natomas and the airport. SacRT is running Route 142 to the airport on an hourly basis, but it is not well used and does not have the span of service for airport workers. Route 11 ends at Club Center Drive in North Natomas and does not reach the airport.

Almost since service on the Green Line started in 2012, STAR has questioned whether it should be run at all. During the pandemic when operators were scarce and many trains and buses cancelled due to lack of staff, SacRT continued to run the Green Line, when staff could have been used elsewhere. Since September 2024, SacRT has used new Siemens S700 LRVs (light rail vehicles) on this route rather than using them on the much higher ridership Gold Line.

With the one-year closure of the Green Line, many transit advocates are questioning whether the Green Line should ever be re-opened, or should be replaced by other options. An initial reaction from many others is that it is impossible to discontinue the Green Line, but that is not true (see VTA discontinued light rail line). The question is: what are the advantages and disadvantages of discontinuing the Green Line?

The Green Line is really a single-station line, from 7th & Richards/Township 9 to 7th & I/County Center (southbound) or 8th & H/County Center to 7th & Richards/Township 9 (northbound). It runs to 13th Street simply because there is a cross-over track just beyond the station, so the train can reverse directions. It operates from 6:13 AM to 8:24 PM (northbound) or 5:59 AM to 8:40 PM (southbound), at a 30-minute frequency, weekdays only, with no weekend service.

Arguments against discontinuing the Green Line are three:

• the investment has already been made
• a new station is being constructed
• development is happening

The ‘investment has already been made’ is a sunk cost fallacy (Wikipedia, Investopedia), meaning that now that money has been spent, we have to keep spending money to justify the original expenditure. Yes, a new station is being constructed, and Republic FC is depending on the new station for getting fans there. It has been suggested that special service could be run for events, though that means the line would have to be maintained at all times, definitely an expense. Development is happening, but slowly.

STAR has always had the position that the need for enhanced service should be based on existing service. If there is a high ridership bus, add frequency and span of service. If that is successful (high ridership), consider a BRT (bus rapid transit). If that is successful (high ridership), consider light rail. And though unlikely to ever occur in Sacramento, if light rail is successful (high ridership), consider a subway. Because the concept of light rail has jumped to the endpoint of the sequence, it it is not clear that it will ever be successful in ridership and service.

Arguments for discontinuing the Green Line are several:

• Green Line is duplicated by Route 11, but Green Line does not operate on weekends
• operating the Green Line uses funds that could better be spent operating buses, and…
• specifically, enhancing bus Route 11
• there are serious questions about whether light rail will ever cross the American River, and if it did, continue to North Natomas, or to the airport
• neither SacRT nor the city has clearly defined a solution for how the Gold Line, Green Line, and ‘streetcar’ to West Sacramento would interact in the downtown area and at Sacramento Valley Station

Complicating the issue at Sacramento Valley Station is a proposal for a light rail ‘loop’ which would change tracks at the station from east-west to north-south. This is partially funded, but it is not clear when construction might start. The reconnection to the the Green Line along 7th Street is not funded, and no grant application for that project has been developed. Since light rail along 7th Street under the railroad tracks was single tracked, a mistake on the part of the city, any significant service on the line would require double-tracking and complete reconstruction of the underpass.

Our next post will present a suggested solution, which is an enhanced Route 11 bus service, and discontinuation of the Green Line.

The map below shows the location of the SacRT Green Line light rail, as it exists, with the Railyards Station location in italic. (pdf)

• SacRT light rail