June 14, 2011 (Sacramento)  –With the rise in gasoline prices, San Diego area and California motorists left the highways, and are riding the rails in record numbers over the past 12 months to ride two of California’s highly successful intercity passenger rail corridors, Caltrans has announced.

Led by the San Joaquin corridor, which serves the Central Valley, linking Los Angeles and Bakersfield with Sacramento and the Bay Area, California’s state supported intercity passenger rail corridors had banner years.  Compared to May 2010, ridership on the San Joaquin, the nation’s fifth busiest rail corridor, shot up over 12 percent with a 19 percent increase in revenue.