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Caltrain releases environmental report for Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project
I like trees as much as anyone else but from an operations perspective if the trees are too close for electrified operation then they are too close for any operation. How did Caltrain allow their vegetation to get so out of control?
Seems like the benefit of getting rid of the diesel emissions would far outweigh the trees, since they could be replaced by planting more somewhere else…and besides the gain in capacity that would allow more rail commuters and result in fewer cars on the roads…
@Daniel…It’s not that the trees are to close to the right-of-way, it’s that they’re in location where the support poles for an overhead distribution system would go if they were to chose outside supported overhead lines, which have to be a minimum distance from the center of track, same as the trees themselves. Don’t be surprised if Caltrain goes with a center mounted overhead system, with some fancy pole design to pacify several of the more refined cities along the line.
Whether getting rid of diesel emissions is a true benefit depends on how the electricity is generated. However, modern power plants, even if coal fired, and modern diesel engines are both very clean. The biggest reason to proceed, in my opinion, is to prepare the corridor for future high speed trains to Los Angeles.
Electrification of this line is not only necessary if it is to carry high-speed trains to/from LA, but also for the proposed northward extension in a tunnel to the new Trans Bay terminal downtown near Market Street. As for the trees, SEPTA in Philadelphia has a problem with trees or tree limbs coming down onto its tracks and overhead wire. There is hardly a month that goes by that this does not happen at least once, as readers of the “Cinders” newsletter (Phila. Chapter NRHS) can attest.