While many of us believe that Sacramento’s light rail trains were innovative when they began tooting their way throughout the Capital Region in the 1980s, the current system is actually the reboot of a suburban trolley that slid, wended and awoke its way through the area many decades before. 

Despite turning 78 this year, Pleau still heads to the office every day to rally the troops, monitor customer satisfaction, and follow his North Star: “My real focus is on expansion,” says Pleau. “I’m not done.”

Tractor heaven is in Woodland. Those who enter the Heidrick family’s California Agriculture Museum are greeted by aisles lined with rare antique trucks and tractors of all colors, shapes and eras, along with other artifacts depicting the country’s rich agricultural machinery history.

The project has been caught in spiraling delays, and launch dates have been pushed back to 2030. The San Jose Regional Rail Commission broke ground on just one of the half dozen proposed new stations as of late summer 2024.

PODCAST EPISODE: Journalist James Stout delves into his latest feature for Comstock’s “What’s Holding Up Valley Rail?” where he investigated delays in railway expansion throughout the Central Valley. We discuss the hurdles that are baked into the system, changing attitudes towards public transit and whether hopping on a train might be more commonplace in future America. 

These days, there is a sense of possibility in Sacramento when it comes to zero emissions technology. Sacramento may not have the population numbers of New York or Los Angeles, but when it comes to EV infrastructure the California capital plays second fiddle to no city in America.