In an attempt to re-rail the topic here, as it appears we've plunged into the minutiae of the NEC, I'm interested to see how the CalTrain electrification effort turns out, if ever the NIMBYs will shut up and/or contribute something positive to the public process over there (oh wait...). Diesel operation has pretty much bankrupted their operations and they have to put in the capital investment to electrify and buy all new equipment, otherwise drastically cut service, which will only serve to put them further into the red.
Further - and this is something that has been mentioned in the Green Line Type 9 thread but I've not yet seen discussed here - CalTrain has filed for a waiver from the FRA of the weight and design restrictions that make American trains so expensive and inefficient since we can't just pull tried and true, off-the-shelf designs and port them to the US. And if we do, we end up with the beastly, expensive monstrosities like the Acela train sets from Bombardier.
That said, we've all acknowledged the extremely high capital investment that would be required of MassDOT, the MBTA/MBCR, and the Commonwealth to electrify MBCR operations along the Providence line, let alone on each of the branches. Being able to order off-the-shelf designs, like the ones CalTrain is considering, should level those sunk investment costs substantially and make long-term maintenance more sustainable since we wouldn't be ordering custom stock at the same volume as NYC MTA.
I got stuck on a train with GM Davey after we left the press conference announcement about live bus tracking for the MBTA and we spoke for a bit on CR operations. He noted he was investigating following through acquiring DMUs to make operations more efficient and reduce running times, but I don't know how far that's come. If anything, it would be in the finalized CIP for 2011-2014. I will be following up with one of the heads of Capital Investment on a couple of stories, but I was wondering if anyone had their ear to the ground as far as whether it would be considered as an intermediate step as part of a long-term plan to convert to EMU operations after further electric infrastructure investments.
Clearly a lot of this won't be happening soon, not while the budget is so tight, but it begs the question whether this would happen if push came to shove and we found ourselves in the same situation as CalTrain. Deval has done the Commonwealth a service by consolidating the transport orgs into MassDOT, in turn making more efficient use of the $3bn for bridge repairs across the Commonwealth over the next 4 years, but will the Commonwealth and Feds step in with another $3bn for the much more efficient investment in electrifying our CR corridors? MBCR is 5th in the nation by passenger volume and could certainly improve ridership, traffic conditions, and environmental impact with a much more reasonable investment than the money sink that became the Big Dig. Would it be inappropriate to look at history for answers to our predicament and ponder how Penn Central went about electrifying their network?
(Apologies to any moderators - I hope I've not strayed too far from the main thread, myself)
Further - and this is something that has been mentioned in the Green Line Type 9 thread but I've not yet seen discussed here - CalTrain has filed for a waiver from the FRA of the weight and design restrictions that make American trains so expensive and inefficient since we can't just pull tried and true, off-the-shelf designs and port them to the US. And if we do, we end up with the beastly, expensive monstrosities like the Acela train sets from Bombardier.
That said, we've all acknowledged the extremely high capital investment that would be required of MassDOT, the MBTA/MBCR, and the Commonwealth to electrify MBCR operations along the Providence line, let alone on each of the branches. Being able to order off-the-shelf designs, like the ones CalTrain is considering, should level those sunk investment costs substantially and make long-term maintenance more sustainable since we wouldn't be ordering custom stock at the same volume as NYC MTA.
I got stuck on a train with GM Davey after we left the press conference announcement about live bus tracking for the MBTA and we spoke for a bit on CR operations. He noted he was investigating following through acquiring DMUs to make operations more efficient and reduce running times, but I don't know how far that's come. If anything, it would be in the finalized CIP for 2011-2014. I will be following up with one of the heads of Capital Investment on a couple of stories, but I was wondering if anyone had their ear to the ground as far as whether it would be considered as an intermediate step as part of a long-term plan to convert to EMU operations after further electric infrastructure investments.
Clearly a lot of this won't be happening soon, not while the budget is so tight, but it begs the question whether this would happen if push came to shove and we found ourselves in the same situation as CalTrain. Deval has done the Commonwealth a service by consolidating the transport orgs into MassDOT, in turn making more efficient use of the $3bn for bridge repairs across the Commonwealth over the next 4 years, but will the Commonwealth and Feds step in with another $3bn for the much more efficient investment in electrifying our CR corridors? MBCR is 5th in the nation by passenger volume and could certainly improve ridership, traffic conditions, and environmental impact with a much more reasonable investment than the money sink that became the Big Dig. Would it be inappropriate to look at history for answers to our predicament and ponder how Penn Central went about electrifying their network?
(Apologies to any moderators - I hope I've not strayed too far from the main thread, myself)
