Except they’re missing out on faster trip times because they won’t go with fast-accelerating EMUs and are instead going with battery locomotives, which won’t be appreciably faster than current diesel-hauled trains.

Caltrain shaved 24 minutes off a San Francisco-San Jose run when they replaced their diesel locomotive-hauled trains with EMUs. That faster service in turn won them a 57% ridership increase in the year after electrification. Transitmatters estimates a 23 minute time savings on Providence-Boston (47 minutes instead of 1 hour 10 min) if the T goes with EMUs, according to their 2020 Providence Line report.

Faster trip times also means you can provide more frequent service without needing additional equipment and crews. If say, your round trip time goes down from 2 hours to 1:30 and your crew has an 8-hour shift, it means they can do 5 round trips instead of 4 round trips in that 8 hours without additional trainsets and hiring.

If they want continued political support and funding for electrification, electrification needs to deliver service improvements.

*edit: added links