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Once again, I'm confused that an intercity, high speed train has _four_ stops within 48 miles. That's a subway, not a high speed train.

by cco 4y ago

runarberg 4y ago
It is actually more like a suburban express rail then a subway. But this is justifiable because the Bay Area is densely populated with a large international airport, so trips will be generated from multiple locations. To clarify, these stops are: 1. Downtown San Francisco, which is a future station that will probably open later then this section. 2. SOMA, the only for sure stop in San Francisco proper when the line opens. 3. SFO airport. Makes sense because the airport will generate lots of trips. 4. San José, the largest city in the Bay Area with many connections to other public transit options. But you can expect express trains to actually skip SOMA and SFO (and possibly even San José).
- cco 4y ago
  Oh, maybe I misunderstood, but I thought this was a part of the SF to LA high speed rail initiative? Definitely understand downtown SF, SFO, and San Jose, but SOMA? Why? One time when I was riding CalTrain from SF to Palo Alto I was timing each stop and it was just so frustrating how many stops, especially shared with BART (!), there were for what is supposed to be an intercity express rail line.
  - runarberg 4y ago
    No you are right, this is actually both caltrain and the high speed rail. These two will interline in the bay area starting in Gilroy (which also has a station, making the station count 5 actually). SOMA is the current terminus of Caltrain. There are plans to connect to the downtown transbay transit center (I refuse to call it Salesforce transit center) but there are no estimates to when the downtown extension (DTX) will be completed to allow that. CAHSR actually finishes before DTX (which is a real possibility) then SOMA will be the terminus of CAHSR as well until the DTX finishes. However I wouldn’t be surprised if SOMA will be skipped by all but hyper-local trains ones DTX is ready.

Once again, I'm confused that an intercity, high speed train has _four_ stops within 48 miles. That's a subway, not a high speed train.

by cco 4y ago

Once again, I'm confused that an intercity, high speed train has _four_ stops within 48 miles. That's a subway, not a high speed train.

runarberg 4y ago

It is actually more like a suburban express rail then a subway. But this is justifiable because the Bay Area is densely populated with a large international airport, so trips will be generated from multiple locations. To clarify, these stops are: 1. Downtown San Francisco, which is a future station that will probably open later then this section. 2. SOMA, the only for sure stop in San Francisco proper when the line opens. 3. SFO airport. Makes sense because the airport will generate lots of trips. 4. San José, the largest city in the Bay Area with many connections to other public transit options. But you can expect express trains to actually skip SOMA and SFO (and possibly even San José).

cco 4y ago
Oh, maybe I misunderstood, but I thought this was a part of the SF to LA high speed rail initiative? Definitely understand downtown SF, SFO, and San Jose, but SOMA? Why? One time when I was riding CalTrain from SF to Palo Alto I was timing each stop and it was just so frustrating how many stops, especially shared with BART (!), there were for what is supposed to be an intercity express rail line.
- runarberg 4y ago
  No you are right, this is actually both caltrain and the high speed rail. These two will interline in the bay area starting in Gilroy (which also has a station, making the station count 5 actually). SOMA is the current terminus of Caltrain. There are plans to connect to the downtown transbay transit center (I refuse to call it Salesforce transit center) but there are no estimates to when the downtown extension (DTX) will be completed to allow that. CAHSR actually finishes before DTX (which is a real possibility) then SOMA will be the terminus of CAHSR as well until the DTX finishes. However I wouldn’t be surprised if SOMA will be skipped by all but hyper-local trains ones DTX is ready.