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Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

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Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#11

Post by benmanns »

londons_explore wrote: post #5
jeffbee wrote: post #2

It's hilarious but sad to watch Americans learn things that agencies abroad already know. The other example of this I saw today was that in NYC the congestion pricing has "surprisingly" slashed the number of car crashes and injuries in Manhattan. Like, duh.

I dunno... Many trains in London still don't do regenerative braking despite the technology to generate electricity from motion being around for... checks notes... 194 years!

You probably know more about this than me, but it looks like some lines do: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/transparency/freedom-of-informa...

Regenerative braking in cars also keeps a lot of brake dust out of the air. A pair of brake pads lasts about as long as the life of an EV.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#12

Post by insane_dreamer »

infotainment wrote: post #8
blintz wrote: post #3

The electric Caltrain is so wonderful. It’s way quieter, the cars have nicer interiors, and it is running faster and more frequently than before. Between this, the new BART cars (also much quieter!), and Muni hitting a reliability & satisfaction records, there’s really a transit renaissance going on in the Bay Area. I really hope we can keep this going!

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

> BART police

why does a transit system need its own police force? Aren't municipal and county police enough?

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#13

Post by readdit »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #7
readdit wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel this is positive news moving in a positive direction. Do you suggest not doing anything to improve the situation? We can’t go back in time. But we can help ourselves in the future.

I feel this improvement is negligible. I doubt you'll see any meaningful change in your lifetime. At best you'll see an electric car renaissance. But the infra for trains and public transit? Doubtful.

It’s still a positive change an I’m all for it.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#14

Post by johnzim »

infotainment wrote: post #8
blintz wrote: post #3

The electric Caltrain is so wonderful. It’s way quieter, the cars have nicer interiors, and it is running faster and more frequently than before. Between this, the new BART cars (also much quieter!), and Muni hitting a reliability & satisfaction records, there’s really a transit renaissance going on in the Bay Area. I really hope we can keep this going!

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

Yep, BART is pretty reviled by all the other transit authorities, and for good reason, based on what my friends who work some of the other authorities have said.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#15

Post by hydrogen7800 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #12
infotainment wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

> BART police why does a transit system need its own police force? Aren't municipal and county police enough?

That's a good question, any I have no idea of the answer, but the port authority of NY and NJ has it's own police. I always figured it was because it spanned jurisdictions, but perhaps there are other reasons

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#16

Post by joshuamorton »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #12
infotainment wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

> BART police why does a transit system need its own police force? Aren't municipal and county police enough?

BART exists in 5 counties (San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara) and multiple cities (SF, Oakland, San Jose, and multiple smaller ones).

Having people who have jurisdiction in any bart station is useful. And for example, consistent foot patrols are valuable to BART but not necessarily valuable to the city of Hayward, or whatever. As a concrete example, BART has more or less a goal to be able to put an officer on the car within a stop or two if you report on the app. That's logistically challenging for like a half dozen reasons if the bart police wasn't it's own org.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#17

Post by pm90 »

blintz wrote: post #3

The electric Caltrain is so wonderful. It’s way quieter, the cars have nicer interiors, and it is running faster and more frequently than before. Between this, the new BART cars (also much quieter!), and Muni hitting a reliability & satisfaction records, there’s really a transit renaissance going on in the Bay Area. I really hope we can keep this going!

To unlock the true value of these systems the BA needs to be forced to increase density of their cities though. We need SF proper to look more like Manhattan.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#18

Post by colechristensen »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #12
infotainment wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

> BART police why does a transit system need its own police force? Aren't municipal and county police enough?

It's pretty common around the country. If it isn't a separate entity you end up having a department of the normal local police doing it separately anyway. Also BART goes through several different police jurisdictions and trains... move. I can imagine the mess and disagreements about which police department was responsible for answering a call or riding in a car as it moved between cities/counties.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#19

Post by lotsofpulp »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #12
infotainment wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system. Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!) Fun exercise: compare…

> BART police why does a transit system need its own police force? Aren't municipal and county police enough?

Presumably because police usually only have jurisdiction within their employer’s city limits, and sheriffs’ employees only have jurisdiction within their counties, so if mass transit moves between multiple jurisdictions, then their police can have jurisdiction wherever the mass transit goes (even across state lines, because a lot of metropolitan regions served by the same mass transit system span two or more states).

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#20

Post by xnx »

londons_explore wrote: post #5
jeffbee wrote: post #2

It's hilarious but sad to watch Americans learn things that agencies abroad already know. The other example of this I saw today was that in NYC the congestion pricing has "surprisingly" slashed the number of car crashes and injuries in Manhattan. Like, duh.

I dunno... Many trains in London still don't do regenerative braking despite the technology to generate electricity from motion being around for... checks notes... 194 years!

Do trains need batteries for regenerative braking, or is it sent right back on the same power lines?
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