On a related tangent, the entire rail network of the whole country of Switzerland was fully electrified by 1967.
Electrification had started in 1907 and reached 70% by 1931.
Caltrain's new electric trains
61–70 of 140 posts
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#62> Instead of the rumble of a diesel engine, the trains now run on 100% electricity. What fuel is used to generate the electricity? (Honest question since I have no idea how electricity markets work) > Caltrain […] was the first service to convert from diesel to electric in the West. (A handful of other passenger trains in the country run on electricity, including an Amtrak line in the Northeast.) This is so misleadin…
Convert is an important word there. It's very obviously not the first electric train service, but they're normally built as electric from the beginning.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
In contrast, in the metro in Paris, the doors open a few seconds before the train stops, so that the doors are fully open by the time the train is stopped - and passengers in a hurry can jump out while the train is still moving.
In Berlin (and probably other German subway systems, can't recall) you can trigger the open doors handle/button a few moments before the train completely stops, similar concept to Paris.
I experienced a few German S-Bahn systems. Berlin's seems to be the only one that doesn't use trains similar to the regional ones, which have the delay.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#64A few weeks ago I was visiting UK & France, and had several opportunities to experience both LNER and Eurostar trains. I have no illusions that the US is ready for actual HSR, and we'd probably subject it to TSA security as bad or worse than what the Eurostar has now. But LNER ... now that is something I'd like to see here. Not HSR, but 125 mph is still half again as fast as most Amtrak trains. No security hassle, ju…
> we'd probably subject it to TSA security as bad or worse than what the Eurostar has now I take the Eurostar a few times a year for work between Amsterdam and Paris and there's literally no security whatsoever. If there's security to board the Eurostar in routes to/from the UK maybe it's because of Brexit?
Between Amsterdam and Paris you are within the Schengen zone.
UK to Europe will have border control, passports, etc.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#65The trains are the Stadler KISS model, from Switzerland.[1] Many in use worldwide since 2012. Caltrain is using the 25KV version, which is high for a commuter line but compatible with the California high speed rail system. (BART is 1KV. Streetcars are 400-600V.) Some of the Caltrain electric trainsets are currently running, intermixed with the two generations of Diesel trains. And the occasional freight train, which…
> (BART is 1KV. How much amps do they need? 2000A? 5000A? How do they carry so much current?
It is a third-rail system, which uses a pretty thick conductor, similar to the two that run underneath the train wheels. https://blog.bayareametro.gov/posts/barts-third-rails-being-...
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
> makes me appreciate what we have much more. I will complain less about trains from now on European trains are lovely. But coming from New York, where our regional rail runs with Swiss on-timeness, the tolerance for delays in the U.K. and Germany is wild.
Trenitalia has entered the chat. Deutsche Bahn is orders of magnitude better. One time my wife and I were taking the train from Venice to Munich and they (Trenitalia) simply forgot half the cars somewhere.
FWIW Deutsche Bahn is just one of many train operators in Germany. On my recent trip back from Köln to Berlin, I experienced a whole lot of delays in the Rhine-Ruhr region (on trains not operated by DB) and no meaningful delay on the enno, Abellio or DB Regio segments from there on.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#67> new express route between San Jose and San Francisco will stop at 11 stations instead of seven, and take 59 minutes instead of an hour and five minutes If you ignore wait times. Why couldn’t they have just sped up the train?
There were previously stations with enough clear passenger demand to justify express service to those stations, but which weren't on the express line because historically they had fewer passengers. Caltrain didn't want to slow down the express line by adding stops, but now that they have the opportunity to add the stops while also making the service faster they did so.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#68> Instead of the rumble of a diesel engine, the trains now run on 100% electricity. What fuel is used to generate the electricity? (Honest question since I have no idea how electricity markets work) > Caltrain […] was the first service to convert from diesel to electric in the West. (A handful of other passenger trains in the country run on electricity, including an Amtrak line in the Northeast.) This is so misleadin…
tl;dr: solar, mostly
The short answer is that average generation in CA is:
- 51% solar
- 22% natural gas
- 21% other renewables (hydro + wind + geothermal)
- 6% nuclear
- 0.1% coal
sources:
- https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=CA
- https://www.gridinfo.com/california
- caiso.com is also good
The medium answer is that trains run during daylight hours, so they probably consume more solar and less natural gas than the averages suggest.
The long answer is that counterfactual modeling of electricity generation is surprisingly subtle. E.g., the Diablo Canyon nuclear power station is going to run regardless of whether Caltrain electrifies, and no more nuclear is being built either way, so really Caltrain is "responsible" for none of the nuclear generation in the state, even if the trains are consuming power at the same time that Diablo Canyon is generating. In this analysis frame, you tend to look at the marginal plant being built, which likely further pushes toward solar but depends on tons of factors in reality.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As seen in the timeline graphic, allowing the step to deploy and retract while the train is in motion would remove this wasted dwell time. It's interesting... I wonder if extending the step while the train is in motion has the potential to knock people down who's currently on the platform and standing too close to the train. > since the step itself does not extend over the platform (it reaches only 63.5 inches from…
The delay observed happens after the train has stopped. The delay is due to laggy software and can be eliminated without extending anything from the train while it's moving. The old trains have no moving steps.
The video is showing part of that delay, but the blog entry is explicitly suggesting that the step start extending while the train is still in moving (at > This can be fixed in software. As seen in the timeline graphic, allowing the step to deploy and retract while the train is in motion would remove this wasted dwell time.
Re: Caltrain's new electric trains
#70I’d be interested to hear about how these trains (and others) would behave in an earthquake. I remember a work colleague who lived through the Loma Prieta going from Berkeley to San Francisco and I’m sure it wasn’t pretty. PS.: huge fan of trains and public transportation here, hopefully other places in North and South America would follow suit!
The Shinkansen cuts power to the train and then hits the breaks as soon as tremors are detected. Perhaps the rails are also designed so the train doesn't hop off.