If you’ve ridden Caltrain anywhere between San Francisco and San Jose recently, you might have noticed that those trains have  made the jump to being fully electric. Gone are the days of the loud, lurching—and often smelly—diesel locomotives. 

And electrifying the 51 miles of railway along the Peninsula was not cheap. It was a multi-billion dollar modernization project. It’s also just a small part of a larger, statewide ambition: the California High Speed Rail system.

Last year, KALW’s transportation reporter, Zain Iqbal went on one of the new trains to see what’s changed with electrification.