As an occasional SEPTA rider, I applaud them for finally being electrified and I do envy them a bit for having more modern trains, especially with its whisper quiet regen braking.
You've enjoyed for decades what some consider as a new thing in North America. The only new thing here are the trains, which is logical for a new system, and you will be getting new (and beautiful, in the renders at least) train in a few years (planned to start arriving in 2029 and be fully deployed in 2031).
@@darmanyjimenez5083 They are doing it in a stupid and (long run) expensive way, by battery-electric multiple units that only get to recharge at South Station (and maybe at the other end). It would have been better to convert the Fairmount Line into a real (Red Line style) rapid transit line, and it would be an easy conversion except for the last little bit to get into South Station Under. Considering how much the T has fought tooth and nail against electrification of Commuter Rail in the recent past, I have a suspicion that they are designing this to fail.
the San Bernardino Line is so overdue to go electric, from it being Metrolink's busiest line, to it being entirely owned between LA Metro and SBCTA (2 of the 5 SoCal county transit agencies that make up SCRRA), and has minimal freight traffic. Even if BLW wouldn't share it, the benefits of having electrified commuter rail should already be enough to justify it.
I am a caltrain rider and I'm so excited for the electric trains to come in fully on saturday!! can't wait for the more frequent and faster travel to SF :) and it'll probably be a lot quieter at my girlfriend's place who lives right next to the caltrain line haha
The surplus equipment is now available for use in other areas. Like Maybe restoring or expanding service to other areas of the LA Basin or adding trains in Northern California.
Only if electrification teams are kept gainfully occupied ... a lesson UK governments of all political stripes have utterly failed to grasp since the Woodhead line was first sparked up back in 1953!
@@andrewreynolds4949 But if you buy more, the price drops because there are no longer individual pieces but masses and producing masses is cheaper than small quantities in Porduz. One km of overhead line in Germany costs €1-1.5 million (USD 1.1-1.6 million), depending on whether it is single-track or double-track. From what I read, CalMod costs 1.5 billion for 51mi (82km). This results in a km price of 18 million USD per km. If I read a false price, tell me.
It’s great to see Caltrain gong in a great direction, and hope that other railroads will soon follow. However service to Gilroy will still be using the diesel sets as that section remains without electrification; a BEMU has been ordered for this section.
If the BEMU works out, Caltrain may order 3 more to round out that route. It would be nice to see Electrification on that line in the future, but the tracks are owned by the UP, so who knows if they'd ever sign off on that.
BTW,the Southern Pacific,was using the Red Cars,in San Francisco,and Oakland,as a test bed for electrifications! So there were plans dating back to the 1900's,for uprating the services back then! The electrification to Boston under Amtrak,was planned by the New Haven,back in the 1910's,and finally got done about a 100 years later! Curious coincidences,no/yes! Thank you 😇 😊!
Here in the UK, when the (old) Southern Railway sparked up the London to Brighton and part of the Sussex Coast routes in 1933, part of the publicity circus involved simultaneously commemorating the 50th anniversary of Volk's Electric Railway, Britain's first and now also oldest electric railway, running just over a mile between just short of Palace Pier and just short of Brighton Marina, a 2'-8½" gauge line, 141 years young and still going as strong as 110Vdc 3rd rail power supply allows! On the first day of the Southern's shiny new electric operations, on the Seaford branch, there was a slight issue when it was discovered the signal box's levers and frame were energised at 750Vdc .... a problem temporarily solved by the simple expedient of running an earthing cable across the adjacent beach into the sea. Those were simpler times!!
Well they were former Metrolink equipment, though I don't think the Bombardier cars are going away soon (the Gilroy extension will still be using diesel locomotives for the immediate future). I know the old gallery cars are going away. Not sure Metrolink would want them back, considering that Metrolink was likely sending them to the scrap yard when Caltrain bought them.
Considering the fact that they're separated from the freight tracks, I think they're the most likely to be electrified next. And I think there was a UTA plan that proposed electrification recently.
Quick correction, not every axle has to be powered to be an EMU, it just must be a self-powered (set of) car(s). For example the swiss KISS only have the end cars powered, and according to the posting on the Stadler website, these trains have a „2'Bo' + Bo'Bo' + 2'2' + Bo'Bo' + Bo'Bo' + 2'2' + Bo'2'“ arrangement)
7:48 they chose not electrify it not just because it only sees 4 round trips per weekday but mainly because the track south of sunnyvale is owned by Union Pacific who would not allow it
CP Lick, between Tamien and Capitol stations, is where Caltrain ownership ends and UP begins. CHSRA is working with UP on an agreement to build two electrified tracks adjacent to the UP track (for three total in the corridor), which would remain non-electrified for UP and, presumably, Amtrak. CHSRA and Caltrain would share the electrified tracks. Chances are CHSRA will build those, and that probably won't start until the mid to late 2030s at the earliest, unless funding for it is found sooner.
The main benefit of the electrification is the greatly improved acceleration of the EMUs, vey useful for the stop-start running on commuter systems like this. When the project was planned it was about the only feasible way to significantly increase capacity on the network; what a shame that it’s only coming into service after Covid, when the ridership was greatly reduced. Electrification is not necessarily more reliable or cheaper than diesel power. Reliability depends on a number of things, including the conditions the wires are exposed to. Places with high winds, potential for trees damaging the lines, and very remote locations where maintenance is very difficult can make diesel the better solution. The cost comparison depends heavily on the prices of fuel and electricity; for example, recently in the UK the price of electricity went up enough that some of the freight rail companies entirely stopped using their electric locomotives. The price of diesel was simply far lower. It’s really not a quick cut comparison.
I live near a second branch line in Italy, they replaced old Aln 668 with ATR 125 and new ATR 803 both from Stadler, while the ATR 125 is more like Diesel-electric train, the ATR 803 run in proximity to the station in electric, outside the station the engines start
The use of two locomotives is done to have a spare locomotive on the line in case one should fail. This allows the extra locomotive to be cut off and sent to the stranded train rather than dispatching one from the engine terminal. This was a practice that started in Chicago.
There was a policy on the PRR/LIRR to have protect locomotives,near major Junctions,to cover for rush hour breakdowns! It's really not that new,as it existed over,now 100 years ago! Steam power,anyone! Thank you 😇😊!
This brings up an interesting point: Metra operates the largest diesel-powered commuter network in the US and is betting that investing in battery-powered trains will be the solution... ironically, Metra has an electrified line. I hope they realize soon that the solution already exists in Metra's own home.
Watching from the Netherlands where all train lines are electrified, I hope that the rest of the US takes its cue from Caltrain. Now is the time to expand the train network and to electrify. (By the way, albeit. a Dutchman, I grew up in Palo Alto in the '60s and '70s; I took Caltrain regularly into the City.
Thank god Stadler has a US based manufacturing facility and we decided on a company with experience building these trains instead of just some big company with no experience that we have to go with be "Buy America" is a requirement... and they lobby the crap to get the contract.
From what I understand the section to Gilrow is not electrified as it's owned by Union Pacific and they don't want it to be electrified. The low usage is also limited by UP they only agreed to allow 10 trains per day.
Farewell to the F40PH’s of Caltrain locomotives and gallery cars it’s time for retirement, but all is not lost I still operate F40PH on Train Sim World just enjoyable memories. 😢
To the Axis not all of the KISS trains are powered they have an axis configuration of " 2’Bo’+Bo’Bo’+2’2’+Bo’Bo’+Bo’Bo’+2’2’+Bo’2’ " (2 = two unpowered axis; Bo = two powered axis where each axis has is own motor)
Great to see investment in the future of passenger rail. To European ears, the persistence of the clanging bell in what are clearly commuter stations is odd. I'd imagine that, having never known anything different, US rail regulars must have a near Pavlovian reaction to the sound ... and European systems must be a bit if a culture shock (especially the UK with it's crazy small trains).
It is really strange, how often the horns and bells of the trains have to be used. If you live near the tracks, this must be very annoying. Perhaps it is time to change this for an emergency use only policy.
Are you sure you want them back? They're older bombardier cars and I think Metrolink was sending them to the scrap yard when Caltrain was like "hey, can we buy those?" Yeah, they're refurbished, but they're still something like 2nd gen cars.
How in the world did we get the interstate highway system setup without this much planning, lawsuits, gov funding, the gov withholding funding and more politics than this.
@@happyburger23it was also very racist. Meaning, the very highways that plow through neighborhoods rather oddly at times, were black neighborhoods that government couldn’t care less about.
@@mateojames3231 in Durham, NC there was a famous black neighborhood that was known across the US as “black Wall Street” and a large portion of it was bulldozed in the 1960s to make way for a highway.
