Hillsdale Station Reconstruction

[Jeff Smith]

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/ ... ion--60469

Short article:

Caltrain tomorrow will close the Hillsdale Station in San Mateo, California, for up to six months in order to rebuild it into an elevated station.

When construction is completed, the Hillsdale Station will be relocated about a block north of its current location.

The station will feature an elevated center-boarding platform allowing for safer, more convenient pedestrian access, Caltrain officials said in a press release.

The construction is part of the 25th Avenue Grade Separation Project to raise Caltrain tracks and lower the road at East 25th Avenue in order to reduce vehicle congestion in the area.

[bdawe]

Are they putting high platforms or are they setting themselves up to spend a bunch of money to do that again in the future?

[njtmnrrbuff]

Low level platforms along the Caltrain route.

[lensovet]

Low level platforms along the Caltrain route.

indeed, given that zero of caltrain's current equipment is usable with high-level platforms, i don't understand why a high-level platform would even be considered, much less built.

this is a grade separation project, plain and simple.

[BandA]

High level platforms make sense for single-level coaches, low level platforms are best for bi-level. Low levels are also easier to make freight compatible and dealing with pedestrian crossing to multiple tracks and ADA. The MBTA, for example, started putting in high level platforms, but within about 10 years they were buying bilevel coaches.

[lensovet]

NJT has had no issues running high-level bilevels for a decade now.

[andrewjw]

They're feasible, sure, but the dwell times with the MLVs are very high. At least with BLVs everyone can gather on the lower level, on the MLVs people are waiting by the stairs. They're an awkward solution to an unusual problem (an existing high-platform system with tight number-of-train limits in the tunnels and full 10 car trains). Caltrain is pretty far from all three of those, it doesn't seem relevant.

[lensovet]

They're feasible, sure, but the dwell times with the MLVs are very high. At least with BLVs everyone can gather on the lower level, on the MLVs people are waiting by the stairs. They're an awkward solution to an unusual problem (an existing high-platform system with tight number-of-train limits in the tunnels and full 10 car trains). Caltrain is pretty far from all three of those, it doesn't seem relevant.

I'd love to see a citation for this. the MLVs also have two doors at each end so you don't have to wait by the stairs, you can filter into the middle level while waiting.

[andrewjw]

Not sure I can provide a citation, sorry. In practice almost nobody uses the second set of doors or waits in the middle level - once one person decides to wait upstairs or on the staircase, they block everyone else on that level, and at that point people just zipper merge out the near door.