By Dean Maddox, Public Safety & Crime Reporter

While Californians still await the promised high speed rail to leave the station, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a $5.3 billion rail package last week that promises to invest money in trains people can ride immediately.

Amtrak riders around the country, including in California, are now set to see real improvements in their travel experience. California routes are not currently slated to receive new trains, but local travelers headed to the coast or the Central Valley can expect greater reliability and fewer delays.

About $2 billion of that package comes from federal funds pulled out of California’s high-speed rail project, where costs have ballooned to $231 billion as travelers continue to wait for meaningful progress. Federal policymakers are now choosing to prioritize investments that will yield more immediate results.

New and upgraded trains

The biggest chunk of the money — $2.05 billion — goes to 43 new Made-in-America trainsets for Amtrak’s state-supported routes. These are the Siemens Airo sets. Cascades service in the Pacific Northwest is already taking delivery of the first ones this year. Other corridors getting them include the Keystone, Empire, Wolverine, Hiawatha, Carolinian, and a long list of Midwest and East Coast lines.

These trains replace equipment that is 40 to 50 years old. Trains also will be bigger. On Cascades, the new trains seat roughly 300 passengers, which is about 50 percent more capacity than the aging cars they’re replacing. Amtrak says the end result will be more space and lower prices, thanks to dynamic pricing, or pricing that rises and falls with demand. Those willing to travel at less popular times will now have access to cheaper fares.

What it feels like to sit in one

The practical upgrades are the kind riders notice the moment they sit down. Ergonomic seats with real legroom. Sturdy tray tables. Movable headrests. Cup holders and tablet holders. Individual power outlets and USB ports. Working Wi-Fi. Better lighting. Digital information displays. Larger, more accessible restrooms with touchless controls.

Panoramic windows let riders in the Northwest enjoy the full experience of seeing the Cascades or the Columbia River.

The café cars are redesigned with more contemporary options, including local Northwest beer and wine on Cascades trains, instead of the usual generic snacks. Local Northwest beer and wine on Cascades trains for example show a new level of attention to detail.

Accessibility is improved with better wheelchair lifts and space. Dual-power capability on some of the sets means faster turnarounds at stations where locomotives used to get swapped out, which should shave some time off trips where the track allows higher speeds.

Fixing the engines that keep breaking

Another $140 million is going to overhaul 41 Siemens Charger locomotives that currently serve Amtrak’s Midwest and Pacific routes. Those Chargers have had reliability problems. Breakdowns. Delays. The kind of mechanical failures that turn a three-and-a-half-hour Cascades trip into a long afternoon of sitting on a siding.

An overhaul doesn’t make the news like a new high-speed rail groundbreaking, but it means fewer mechanical failures and better on-time performance for the people who actually show up at the station with a ticket.

The difference between a project and a train

This federal package isn’t going to build a 220-mph bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s buying new cars and fixing locomotives for the routes that already carry passengers.

More seats. Better seats. Power outlets that work. Engines that don’t quit halfway to Portland. That’s not glamorous. It’s just useful.

For the people who take the train because it’s cheaper than flying, easier than driving I-5 in traffic, or because they simply prefer it, this investment will yield immediate benefits.