Caltrain Electrification

[NH2060]

Well considering the animosity in the Trump Administration toward MANY Obama Administration policies, etc. (and rightfully so I might add) this is a big.. i mean YUGE deal and looks very good on the current administration for not gutting or trying to gut the funding because it was "an Obama era thing". Not that Trump Admin. people themselves would necessarily say so, but many in the media would try to spin it as such.

Had the Admin. cancelled the funding that would have been a very bad move regardless of politics. The time has come to electrify.

[lensovet]

if you think anything this administration is doing is driven by anything other than politics or personal gain, i've got a yuge bridge to sell you…

[electricron]

If you believe any discretionary federal, state, or local program from any era throughout history isn't driven by politics I have another bridge to sell to you!
Of course politics drives all discretionary spending!

[Tadman]

This. It is extremely rare that a politician does something because "it's the right thing". Mr. Smith has long since left Washington and the movie was correct - most guys are there for promotion and growth and aggrandizement. Even the pols that claim to be here "for the people" and not real politicians, IE Rauner, Perot, Trump, are surrounded by those that are real politicians.

[jonnhrr]

Railway Age is reporting groundbreaking on the electrification:

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/pas ... channel=55

Following years of planning and recent federal funding uncertainty, Caltrain broke ground on the Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project July 21.

The ceremony was held at the Millbrae Caltrain Station and attended by California Gov. Jerry Brown, U.S. Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-12), Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.-18) and Jackie Speier (D-Calif.-14), as well as state and local officials and stakeholders.

The project will electrify the Caltrain corridor between San Francisco and San Jose and will equip the corridor with high-performance electric trains that will deliver faster, more frequent service to help the system accommodate rapidly increasing ridership demand.

[lpetrich]

Construction Overview – CalMod shows what is being done where. The construction activities are listed as Preconstruction, Foundations, Poles, Wires, Power Substations, Bridge Barriers.

Where construction is happening, it is mostly Preconstruction, such things as trimming trees that extend too far into the right-of-way. South SF, San Bruno, and Millbrae are listed as having some foundations done.

[lensovet]

cool site. looks like the weekly updates on the right are regularly updated; however, the map is not, as it hasn't been updated in almost two months.

[Backshophoss]

There's word that Caltrans sprang for 2 AEM-7's for Catenary testing as it's built,At least 1 motor has gone west from DC.
Has it been seen in Ca yet?

[bdawe]

From what I've been reading of the updated State Rail plan, the new plan for HSR to Gilroy is 110 mph with grade crossings three-tracking the UP RoW.

Previous plans had a genuine high speed line diverging south of Tamien to a dedicated high speed line, but if it's going to be 110 then you may as well just continue blended operations, which would solve a bit logistical problem of Caltrain South not being electrified.

That said, I suspect that the rail plan all points to leaving open future investment in better mountain passes while building the San Joaquin Valley trunk line to proper specifications. Building Gilroy as an upgraded conventional line makes it much easier to abandon it as a sunk regional spur, with the benefit of faster and more reliable service service for Caltrain South/Capitol Corridor to Salinas/Starlight/anything going to the Central Coast

[lpetrich]

Looking at this week's construction notices, San Bruno is to get its OCS poles next weekend, March 23 - 25. OCS = overhead contact system.

Millbrae and Burlingame are to have preconstruction work and installation of OCS foundations. Preconstruction here = utility relocation and tree trimming.

Santa Clara and San Jose only have utility relocation.

From CalMod_FAQ_1.2018.pdf at Resources – CalMod,

Q: What will happen to service to Gilroy?
A: The current Caltrain Electrification project only includes electrification to a point approximately two miles south of Tamien Station in San Jose. Caltrain will continue to provide diesel service to Gilroy.

Q: Why not electrify south of Tamien Station?
A: Caltrain does not own the southbound right-of-way beginning two miles south of Tamien Station. Union Pacific Railroad owns this section of the corridor.

There are also not very many riders south of Tamien.

[BandA]

How frequent are electric trains expected to be?

[lpetrich]

I couldn't find any details on that.

I suspect that off-peak schedules will get the biggest improvement. Currently, weekday off-peak trains run at an interval of about 1 hour, and weekend trains 1.5 hours. I can only speculate as to how much improvement there will be. But if it is possible to run the new EMU trains at shorter than their maximum lengths, then that will help in making possible more off-peak service.

BART's trains are much more frequent. Its weekday midday trains run at intervals of 15 minutes on each line, and weeknight and weekend trains run at 20 minutes. BART also runs shorter trains at off-peak times than at peak times.

[lensovet]

this project has almost nothing to do with off-peak service. Caltrain's biggest problem right now is overpacked trains during peak hours with no way to expand capacity. they aren't buying any more locomotives and they have already maxed out the train lengths during rush hours.

They explicitly call this out here: http://www.caltrain.com/projectsplans/C ... acity.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[electricron]

The 16 new Stadler KISS trains Caltrain is buying will have the following specifications:
6 car bilevel EMU (expandable up to 8 cars)
~515 feet in length
~10 feet wide
~16 feet tall
573 seats at 6 cars ( 837 seats for 8 cars)
80 bike spaces per train
110 mph max speed
6,000 KW, 8,000+ HP
http://caltrain-hsr.blogspot.com/2016/0 ... chure.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[frequentflyer]

Interesting the KISS trains cars do not share bogies like other Stadler EMUs.