njt/mnrrbuff wrote: ↑Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:52 am
Once electrification is done and the Stadler EMU trainsets are ready to run, it will be interesting to see what train may turn into an express and others that may turn into locals. In addition, what equipment will run on the locals and expresses. I can certainly say that I wouldn't be surprised if the local trains run between San Jose and San Francisco and they use EMUs. The distance between stops along the route from San Jose Diridon to San Francisco is close to each other. Some of the baby bullets should remain diesel and be extended to Salinas in place of the locals. Salinas is a very long trip by train to San Francisco-like 106 miles. That's a long distance to be sitting in a commuter rail vehicle. Here in the Northeast, LIRR's Montauk Line is about 120 miles but nobody commutes that far out. The commuting boundary on the Montauk Line drops off at Speonk with even more trains ending and beginning their journey in Patchogue. Many of the trains that start out in Montauk run express from Jamaica to Babylon.
I believe the plan is, unless they've increased their order with Stadler or acquired more money, to run the bullets with the newer and more comfortable bombers and sell and retire all the gallery cars.
With respect to Salinas, I'm pleased to see they've hardened on Caltrain as operator. They've flip-flopped back and forth whether that will be Caltrain or Capitol Corridor trains extended to Salinas. I believe the expected commuter market is going to be San Jose Commuters, rather than SF, with SF being more day-tripper oriented. Either way it's not going to be terribly large numbers of people
the 2:30 minute schedule to San Francisco is somewhat disappointing, as 2 hours to Salinas has been achieved in the past
https://www.tamcmonterey.org/wp-content ... h-2020.pdf
B. Dawe's map of routes and urban populations
https://brendandawe.carto.com/viz/80b9d ... /embed_map" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; NOW updated with 2016 Canadian Populations