Caltrain's Forgotten Little Brother? (Episode 6 - ACE) 

He should appoint me as the Head of Caltrans

Though to be fair, Amtrak does not run trains to San Francisco. It would be cool if they extended the surf liner to SF

always a classic

@@tonywalters7298 The Coast Daylight proposal has been in the works for over twenty years. Around 2003 Amtrak, CalTrans Division of Rail and the LOSSAN corridor started operating a Surfliner that left LA around 7:30 and terminated in SLO around 12:45. This was train 799. The return trip (Train 798) left SLO at 2:00 and arrived back at LAUPT at 7:40. The LA Rail Car group of private car owners used to run their cars behind the Surfliner on most Saturdays. I rode a few. The plan was to extend this to San Francisco. Caltrain had planned to give up one of its Express Train slots in order to accommodate it. It would have acted as a sweeper train stopping at Paso Robles, King City, Soledad, Salinas, Watsonville Jct/Pajaro, Gilroy, San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Millbrae and San Francisco, running about two hours earlier before the Coast Starlight. At San Jose passengers bound for points north could transfer after a brief layover to the Starlight. The brochure I have did not print suggested times. Just early evening morning departures and early evening arrivals in SF and LA. with day meets in SLO. What has delayed this? In my opinion and recollection: first UP demanded passing tracks, CTC (and now PTC), then getting some money in CalTrans Division of Rail's budget for it, then 2008 - 2011 recession, and finally we have come out of the great recession most intercity rail money has gone towards new rail cars, maintaining the existing services (thanks to the PRIIA/Amtrak Reauthorization) and HSR. Here is the webpage for the least known of CA's intercity rail corridor agencies. It only exists on paper and the web. www.slocog.org/programs/public-transportation/rail/coast-rail-coordinating-council-crcc

Yep, really funny part!

I love the Fremont Station!!

The problem with consolidation is that each system is so different and politics. Smart is disconnected from the rest of the rail networks and uses DMU trains on its own single track line. Capitol Corridor and ACE have some in common but they are different from the rest as they use UPRR tracks with large infrequent locomotive hauled trains. Caltrain will soon use EMU trains on its own 2-4 track alignment with frequent service. And BART is basically a metro system that extends 50 miles. I could see the argument for combining Caltrain and Bart and having ACE and CC combine. But long term consolidation doesn’t make sense until the Dumbarton rail and second transbay tubes eventually get built.

@@TysonIke BART runs on wider gauge tracks, so it really can't be integrated with any other networks. It's stuck being an oddball loner. Eventually Caltrain, Capitol Corridor, and ACE should all be consolidated with CAHSR, but I'm not sure there's any reason to do so before that starts operating.

​@selanryn5849 oh God no. Leave the commuters as they are since CAHSR is moreso to connect the 2 greater mega regions through the 3 mega region of San Joaquin. CAHSR is a region connector more than a commuters project. All that to say, regional commuter rails still will and do have a place where they are. Dont touch them unless it's to expand.

@@selanryn5849 I’m more talking from a timetable and fare payment perspective. Currently Millbrae is the only transfer, but in the future there will be far more so fare integration should happen.

@@selanryn5849 Neither the London Underground nor the Paris Metro has physically compatible rolling stock across the different lines. It doesn't stop them being usefully integrated in the passengers' view, with unified branding, payment, timetables, fare gates, maps, way finding etc. etc. etc.. Other cities achieve greater integration than here even with multiple operating companies. The Bay Area is stupid just for the sake of stupid, because there are so many decision makers-and indeed voters-who want transit to fail.

How’d it go?

Ok I guess, I uploaded it to my channel.

The ACE is planning on adding a ton of trip and a second 15-20 minute all-day frequency service is in the process of being constructed right now. That's Valley Link and ACE will eventually partially switch to that right of way and share track. At that point, when ACE connects to CAHSR and has a super-frequent twin TOD will become vastly more relevant!

Yeah I can very much relate to parking traffic. I often run out of the train and to my car at the end of the lot so I am not stuck in traffic for another 10 minutes

Yes

Yes agree I would actually use ACE train if they did this!

Yeah I agree. I was really hoping for Downtown West to add several thousand units of housing. Not twelve story office towers…

Maybe they already have a tenant? That's the only reason I can think of building offices right now. Building a spec office building right now almost anywhere in the country seems like a guaranteed money loser.

Union Pacific owns almost all of the track, which was mostly the old Western Pacific RR. The ACE depot in Stockton is the old Southern Pacific depot. The San Joaquin depot in Stockton is the old Santa Fe depot.

@@dfirth224 amtrak doesnt use the ACE line after fremont

☺️

there are double tracked areas as well on the UP line

Exactly!! Santa Clara even wants to revitalize their “downtown” core of present day strip malls

You would have to buy the track outright because most of the Class ones won't let you upgrade the track otherwise

That’s a long term plan, i would love to!

Pretty much everyone rides it from San Joaquin county to the bay though, so it very much would make sense

Sure. But I reckon it’s much easier for San Joaquin to contract the MTC to integrate the Clipper Card service than to expand into Sacramento and Merced. It’s more of an administration issue than anything

Yeah and on top of that ACE doesn’t do a great job of marketing to people, especially in the Central Valley. They have so much potential and are underutilizing their system

Every time you make the traveling public transfer, you loose half of your potential riders.

@@johnhblaubachea5156That's what I'm sayin'!

Yea I had to get some last minute footage hahaha

also where will old Caltrain rolling stock go? ACE should have some

Email me :) let’s chT

*chat

@@todgod Emailed and sent a reply on Twitter.

Yep… had to download the ACE app and everything.

I think so. The frequencies are much better and it serves a higher populace and two distinct important metro areas in California. ACE is just a plain commuter service

Depends the Capitol Corridor is Amtrak so it's Intercity not Commuter Rail

Capitol Corridor is on the short list. The San Joaquins IMO is less a form of public transit and moreso a statewide rail service so probably not

Oh no, hydrogen is definitely an absurd "power source" in general. Hydrogen vehicles are just electric vehicles but instead of a battery they use a fuel cell. Hence, there is no physical way for them to be as efficient as a pure battery vehicle by definition. And hydrogen is currently, and will be for at least the next 3-4 decades, be extracted exclusively from plain old natural gas. So it's much more environmentally damaging than diesel. Hydrogen's only saving grace is that it does not generate local emissions at the tailpipe. In all other ways its worse than not just catenary or batteries (only possible for short routes), but also worse than diesel in terms of carbon emissions. It's a meme that American passenger rail carriers are forced to take seriously because our freight rail industry is determined to never allow electrification under any circumstances.

Nope

Yeah hydrogen is terrible for anything were you need power, just Electrify it

They have in the works for the Redlands to San Bernardino Arrow service. It will complement their four RDC units.

Its California

No, you don‘t need to merge them. They each have their specialty and merging them would create an unwieldy company with too many different services to manage. You can integrate fares without merging operators.