High-speed rail chips in $713M for Caltrain electrification that could double ridership (San Jose: home)

[cardinal2007]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/n...-caltrain.html

SACRAMENTO – Caltrain electrification and high-speed rail access to that corridor took its next-to-last funding step Tuesday when the California High-Speed Rail Authority unanimously approved $713 million for its share of funding for the nearly $2 billion project.

Construction on electrifying 50 miles of track between San Jose and San Francisco is expected to begin next year once the Federal Railroad Administration has reviewed the funding commitments from the authority, Caltrain and five other funders, according to Seamus Murphy, Caltrain’s communications officer.

The first electric Caltrains are scheduled to begin running in five years, although the service will not be fully electric for several years as diesel-powered trains are phased out over time. When completed, CalTrains estimates ridership could double.

For high-speed rail, the funding commitment means Caltrain will grant access to its corridor, subject to Union Pacific Railroad’s concurrence on trackage rights that it holds, so that high-speed trains and Caltrain can share the corridor in “blended service.”

...

I'm definitely looking forward to these changes, Caltrain going faster and having much smaller headways would help, especially with crowded rush hour trains.

[neutrino78x]

Yeah, the money for CalTrain electrification is definitely good. They should have made CalTrain electric 50 years ago. I still think HSR, as proposed, is a bad idea.

[calicoastal]

Very exciting news! Even if you don't like HSR, the benefit to Caltrain and Metrolink is worth it alone. The new electric Swiss trains on order for Caltrain are very nice, Stadler Kiss. Now all that is needed is the extension to the Transbay Terminal and the remaining grade separations.

[marcopolo666]

Originally Posted by calicoastal

Very exciting news! Even if you don't like HSR, the benefit to Caltrain and Metrolink is worth it alone.

$100 billion for HST is 'worth it' because it provided ~$750 million to electrify CalTrain ...

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The ongoing reorientation of the HSR project is trying to tell us something.

Namely, the actual best use of such moneys would be improving commuter rail and short haul intercity rail. While a notable long term goal, tying to hit a home run on the first at bat in the area of long haul intercity rail is going to result in a strike out.

[marcopolo666]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

The ongoing reorientation of the HSR project is trying to tell us something.

Namely, the actual best use of such moneys would be improving commuter rail and short haul intercity rail. While a notable long term goal, tying to hit a home run on the first at bat in the area of long haul intercity rail is going to result in a strike out.

Actually, I disagree (even though I think that the HSR project as it is planned is a complete waste of money and time and will be a massive failure *for what they say they are building*. While it *could have been* a successful way to travel from the BA to LA, it will not be at all cost effective. I doubt that any of the money spent on building it will ever be recouped, and I think that it will operate at a loss once it starts running, never breaking even. I'd take the train to LA instead of a plane if the ticket price was more or less comparable AND the train stopped at a few important nodes in the LA basin and not just 'downtown' or 'LAX' (I hate flying thru LAX).

Or maybe I agree with you, depending on what you mean by 'short haul' and 'commuter rail' . Once HSR makes Merced and Fresno 35-45 minutes from San Jose downtown, they will become bay area bedroom communities for tech workers to a certain extent. This should be even more true for Gilroy and Los Baños. True, HSR trains will not themselves be stopping there, but it should be child's play for CalTrain to run the same electrified trains used on the peninsula from Gilroy and LB along the HSR tracks for most of their trip, at 125 mph. (HSR isn't going to be running trains every 15 minutes!) Suddenly the rush hour super-bullet trains make LB, and Gilroy much closer (time-wise) to Silicon Valley & SF (stopping at only a few stations - those with large concentrations of corporations close-by, or with an easy connection to local public transit nodes - such as Diridon, Mountain View, Milbrae, SF's TransBay center)

Tying a few more cities into 'the network' by running track from said cities to the HSR tracks and running at 1/2 the speed of HSR would be a huge success. That is the 'logic' used in London and Paris and New York for commuter rail - except that their trains don't fly down the track at 100+ mph over medium/long distances - they are more like CalTrain is now, stopping every 5 miles or so at a dozen or more stations.

[neutrino78x]

Actually, I have a report from an HSR planning meeting here in Silicon Valley which claims they will have a stop in Gilroy. Their web site discusses it too:

http://www.hsr.ca.gov/programs/stati...y_station.html

http://www.cahsrblog.com/2012/02/gil...n-hsr-station/

Complete waste of money in my opinion. It should have been built down the median of I-5, and just have spurs going to the major cities that are not right on I-5. The spurs should also be built down the medians of existing highways.