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Like most people here, I know nothing about trains. But I do know that Caltrain trains are enormous, monstrous, loud machines that, on every departure and arriv

by malchow 11y ago

Like most people here, I know nothing about trains. But I do know that Caltrain trains are enormous, monstrous, loud machines that, on every departure and arrival, seem to portend the end of the universe. I grew up in New Jersey, whose train system is a hundred years older than NorCal's, and serves a denser population. And its trains are like the Concorde compared to Caltrain. For what, exactly, are we giving California 10% of our income?

pm24601 11y ago
> For what, exactly, are we giving California 10% of our income? So you can get better service than what you have today. Caltrain has no dedicated funding source and relies (too much) on handouts from Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco. As a result, is is always short of money to really ramp up the service. Hopefully high-speed rail money will change this.
Animats 11y ago
New Jersey Transit runs Bombardier two-level cars, very similar to the ones used by Caltrain.[1] PATH runs subway-type equipment through the Hudson Tubes. Admittedly, Caltrain's power is dated. All those EMD F40PH units are a 1975 base design, built around 1985. It's a widely used, boring, reliable locomotive. There's a plan to electrify Caltrain (25KV, 60Hz AC), but it has to mesh with both the high speed rail scheme and the Transbay Terminal scheme, which complicates it enormously. (There's heavy poltical pressure in SF from real estate interests to have the train station close to "downtown", or rather where "downtown" used to be. The Transbay Terminal is being built with the platform spaces for a rail station underneath, but without the tunnels to connect it to the tracks at 4th St. All that is in fill, below sea level, in an earthquake zone.) Meanwhile construction has started on California's high speed rail system. Unfortunately, it only runs from Bakersfield to Palmdale, which is useless. [1] http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=TrainTo http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=Tra...
- pm24601 11y ago
  > Meanwhile construction has started on California's high speed rail system. Unfortunately, it only runs from Bakersfield to Palmdale, which is useless. Correction 1: Bakersfield to Fresno Correction 2: This is the opposite of useless because: 1. Bakersfield is ~340,000 people ; Fresno is ~509,924 people + the other cities between call it about a million now have much better rail service. 2. CAHSR needs a flat straight section to do acceptance testing for train set delivery. 3. The federal stimulus money required a fast spending this section was furthest along in planning and the least controversial

by malchow 11y ago

pm24601 11y ago

> For what, exactly, are we giving California 10% of our income? So you can get better service than what you have today. Caltrain has no dedicated funding source and relies (too much) on handouts from Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Francisco. As a result, is is always short of money to really ramp up the service. Hopefully high-speed rail money will change this.

Animats 11y ago

New Jersey Transit runs Bombardier two-level cars, very similar to the ones used by Caltrain.[1] PATH runs subway-type equipment through the Hudson Tubes. Admittedly, Caltrain's power is dated. All those EMD F40PH units are a 1975 base design, built around 1985. It's a widely used, boring, reliable locomotive. There's a plan to electrify Caltrain (25KV, 60Hz AC), but it has to mesh with both the high speed rail scheme and the Transbay Terminal scheme, which complicates it enormously. (There's heavy poltical pressure in SF from real estate interests to have the train station close to "downtown", or rather where "downtown" used to be. The Transbay Terminal is being built with the platform spaces for a rail station underneath, but without the tunnels to connect it to the tracks at 4th St. All that is in fill, below sea level, in an earthquake zone.) Meanwhile construction has started on California's high speed rail system. Unfortunately, it only runs from Bakersfield to Palmdale, which is useless. [1] http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=TrainTo http://www.njtransit.com/sf/sf_servlet.srv?hdnPageAction=Tra...

pm24601 11y ago
> Meanwhile construction has started on California's high speed rail system. Unfortunately, it only runs from Bakersfield to Palmdale, which is useless. Correction 1: Bakersfield to Fresno Correction 2: This is the opposite of useless because: 1. Bakersfield is ~340,000 people ; Fresno is ~509,924 people + the other cities between call it about a million now have much better rail service. 2. CAHSR needs a flat straight section to do acceptance testing for train set delivery. 3. The federal stimulus money required a fast spending this section was furthest along in planning and the least controversial