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Caltrain approves electrification, may add more trains
A friend of mine from San Francisco says rolling blackouts are still the norm, does the Joint Powers Board plan to build their own generating stations? And for fuel? No hydro in the area that I’m aware of, middle class and upper class area like that is gonna scream about a coal plant, or nuclear, what’s left? They’ll scream about dedicated power lines too. Guess they have til 2019 to solve their problem, maybe they can use the Conrail experience as a model, lol. That didn’t have any political problems, did it?
A lot of people will get paid a lot of money before a single rail gets laid and wheels roll in revenue service. I like the railroads, but I believe this is a bunch of hollow promises that will never get fulfilled. If they really wanted to electrify the peninsula they could get it done in a year.
A lot of people will get paid a lot of money before a single rail gets laid and wheels roll in revenue service. I like the railroads, but I believe this is a bunch of hollow promises that will never get fulfilled. If they really wanted to electrify the peninsula they could get it done in a year.
Exactly what are the specifically HS aspects of this project and at what HS velocity? In any event, enhanced commuter service is useful to consumers and taxpayers compared to 220-mph Valley Bullets, Fresno to a location short of Bakersfield. Do we remember John Santa Fe’s 90-mph, HS Golden Gates in the Valley? /FRED/
Railroad Electrification can be powered by unlimited sources of energy. These include, but are not limited to: coal, wood burning, solar, natural gas, hydrogen, wind, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, nuclear, ocean wave movements; and all other sources of energy known to mankind, both now and in the future.
Another advantage of railroad electrification is that it completely frees the railroads from all dependency on oil, and non-renewable sources of energy.
Still, another advantage of electrification; is that it allows the railroads to do something that NO other mode of transportation can ever accomplish.
With all trackage across the United States being electrified, it is theoretically possible to run a train coast to coast NONSTOP without burning on drop of oil for energy. Only the railroads are capable of doing this!
I live in San Jose, California, some 60 miles south of San Francisco.
Rolling blackouts? Never heard of them.
Please ask your friend what’s he / she was smoking.
WE should remember that the San Francisco commuter service via the Pacific Electric and the Sacramento Northern were electrified and taxpaying companies…now we “progress” to the present day and the taxpayers are expected to pickup the tab for electrification. Now that is progress.
Get the lawyers ready as the NIMBY crowd and the EPA will no doubt demand all kinds of environmental impact studies plus worries about the “unsightly” overhead structres and wire.
I hope it goes through but I am rather skeptical.
They should of electrified the line years ago! But better late than never. It also will translate into improved air quality, and quieter trains. But most importantly, it will greatly reduce the operating expenses, which if done right, means improved services along the line, and a lot more trains, especially off hours and on weekends.
Parts of the world we label as “third world” have electrified rail lines as the norm but we advanced civilization can’t see our way to get er done. What a shame!
What type of electrification is planned on this network? 25 kV 60 Hz?
The NIMBY’s don’t have to worry about this one, it’ll never get built. California is too broke now. Maybe if they didn’t waste so much money on their silly HSR proposal they might be able to do something useful like this electrification.
If it is important to the story to note that Rep. Anna G Eshoo and State Senator Joe Simitian are Democrats why is Assemblyman Rich Gordon’s political affiliation not similarly important?
One of the greatest tragedies of the 1980s was the FRA decision to allow Conrail to remove electrification from the freight-only lines of the ex-PRR. Almost of Europe, much of Russia, and many other countries like South Africa are substantially electrified, except for little used freight spurs.
Why did the US railroads de-install electrification? There was, at the time, “domestic oil” and the railroads assumed that the lowest cost solution would remain equipment fueled with diesel. It was a plan-by-the-quarter environment, not one based on long-range projections or “common good.”
The PRR electric freight operations required a change of power at the edges of the “electrified zone” and this added to operational costs. I’m unaware of any substantive complaints about electric motors moving freight between Harrisburg, PA and Northern New Jersey.
CONRAIL management was out to squeeze every dime out of daily operating expenses, (given impending bankruptcy) and maintaining the wire crews was an expense they felt they should eliminate. The country is poorer for that decision.