San Diego Green Line at Old Town

[Wingnut]

Why isn't the Blue Line run through as the Green Line north of Old Town instead of asking passengers to transfer? If there is a mismatch in ridership, have every other Blue Line train turn back at Old Town.

This one has always mystified me.

[neroden]

Wikipedia is your friend. The Green Line uses Siemens S70 low-floor trolleys, and the Blue Line needs renovation in order to use them. (It currently uses Siemens U2 trolleys.) The renovation is being done, slowly.

I'm not exactly sure what the incompatibility is; most likely they need to fiddle with platform width and height.

[Disney Guy]

The S-70 has no entrance steps (and no wheelchair lifts) and a floor height a little over a foot (or about twice the height of a typical sidewalk curb) above railhead. It would be a "big step up" from street level.

(By the way, many pre-1930 streetcars had their first step about that same little-over-a-foot distance above railhead.)

[electricron]

The S-70 has no entrance steps (and no wheelchair lifts) and a floor height a little over a foot (or about twice the height of a typical sidewalk curb) above railhead. It would be a "big step up" from street level.
(By the way, many pre-1930 streetcars had their first step about that same little-over-a-foot distance above railhead.)

Excellent point. San Diego would have to do what DART did to use a mix of high and low floor trains on all their lines. (1) Add new articulated section with low floors to existing trains, and (2) raise the height of existing platforms to match. Additionally, DART's low floor height is 18 inches above top of rail, the usual world standard is 14 inches, because that matches the bottom step of all their high floor train sections, thereby avoiding an awkward last or first step likely to cause trips or falls.
The other solution is do what Santa Clara transit did. (1) Sell all their old trains early and buy brand new S-70 low floor replacement trains, and (2) raise all the old platforms to low floor height. Luckily, the found UTA willing to buy all their high floor equipment used. I'm not so sure San Diego transit will be so lucky.

[Head-end View]

Yeah, those sons of "guns" in Santa Clara County really threw us rail-tourists a curve ball. I rode that system in 1995 and was able to see out the front of the cars. I went back to ride again in 2010 to tour the newer parts of the system not built yet in 1995, and never even considered that they might have replaced the whole fleet so soon. And rode the whole way from Mountain View to Santa Teresa and back and couldn't see out the front of the new cars!! I was absolutely frosted! Was really looking forward to that front view on the new north end of the system around Sunnyvale and Mountain View. "Frig" me for bein' a railfan. And it rained that day too. Anybody know why the new cars don't have a window in the cab-door like some other systems do?

At least the San Francisco cable cars are still everything they always were.

[Wingnut]

Then I take it the downtown stations are already compatible because they're able to run that special through service from Qualcomm Stadium. Do regular riders ever complain about not being able to enjoy full service downtown? I know there's a long term plan to pair up the Orange and Blue Lines from the south and east with today's Green Line and a future branch to University City, but that obviously is several years down the road.

[diburning]

Why can't they run the Blue line onwards as the Green? The U2s should be able to take the Green Line platforms with no problems.