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| Re: PHOTOS: CALTRAN CALTRAIN IV (1145302) | |||
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Re: PHOTOS: CALTRAN CALTRAIN IV |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Sun Mar 18 18:26:47 2012, in response to Re: PHOTOS: CALTRAN CALTRAIN IV, posted by WillD on Sun Mar 18 17:53:01 2012. It's also the largest single economy in the US, the ninth largest in the world if taken independently of the US. California's fiscal troubles are solely the responsibility of their foolish property tax laws which restrict revenue for schools and municipalities. Deferring needed infrastructure improvements into the future only ensures we pay that much more money. But hey, I guess whatever it takes to make sure you can play armchair engineer a few more years.They aren't going to repeal Prop 13 or fix their dysfunctional government any time soon. All your little dreams of a European rail fantasy camp on this side of the Atlantic are not going to happen, deal with it. Great, so we're going to blow Caltrain's scarce operational funds running more trains without the operational savings electrification would provide. If you want to do away with Caltrain that's about the easiest way to accomplish that. What operational savings? The maintaining the centenary kind? for The type of service Caltrain offers diesel will be the cheapest option. Hell, even on the east coast commuter rail operators run diesel under wire because all things considered it turns out to be cheaper. Why do you think there has been so many mostly failed efforts into Dual Mode locomotives? Is NJT, LIRR, MNRR, etc all looking for a way to pay more in operational costs? No, they are required to run electrics because of tunnels etc and want to find a way to keep as much of their systems diesel as they can. Electrification has many advantages, but cheaper operations hasn't been one of them since the days of steam. ... on the wrong side of the Bay. That does nothing to close the 54 mile gap between Millbrae and San Jose that will exist after BART is extended to San Jose. Using BART's Warm Springs extension's $164 million/mile extension that comes to $8.9 billion to extend BART from Millbrae to San Jose (without cars). By comparison Caltrain's latest electrification can be completed for $470 million for the infrastructure, plus around $300 million for the rolling stock. For less than a tenth the cost electrifying Caltrain allows them to maintain the existing local/express service (something BART would do away with) increase speeds, and prepare the corridor for the eventual connection to the high speed rail system. They could also just not do anything and use the 400 million to pay down the state's massive debt. When you're broke, you don't get new things. Why? The problem with BART was that they clung to the US's foolish use of single and married pair cars. They would have been much better off ordering most of their cars in 4 car sets with a few pairs or singles to round out longer trains. Caltrain will likely receive four car, permanently coupled trains. If you can't pass through all open cars then you can't have platforms where only some of the cars platform not to mention it makes finding a seat harder as well as staffing the cars with ticket inspectors. Why do you insist on trying to re-make the US passenger rail system as some form of rapid transit?!?! The whole point of choosing commuter rail is that it doesn't feel like the New York City Subway. Moreover, running something like the New York City subway is highly expensive, even if it may attract more riders. Europe works because of massive government subsidy and a public policy of making road transport far more expensive than it naturally would be. They can pull hole trainsets from service they are given money to buy extras or money to do preventative maintenance. Their rights of way are tailored to match the rolling stock, highly groomed and electrified. Yes, its all great, but it sucks down money like a hoover. If I could trust Caltrain not to do something retarded like buy European MU trainsets I'd generally supportive of some electrification plan (I don't live in CA after all so its not my money), but no, someone like you got to them and they're going to end up with a fleet of prima donna equipment that will change Caltrain's cost and operating structure from Railroad to Rapid Transit. Thank god Metra did things right by just sticking a pantograph on a gallery car. |
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