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Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

caltrain.com

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Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#101
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!

> It’s way quieter, the cars have nicer interiors, and it is running faster and more frequently than before. Not that electric isn't a huge step up for all the usual reasons but most of that is just because it's new and hasn't been worn out yet.

Honestly, I think even the old Caltrain cars were pretty clean. The only dirty parts were the bathrooms (and honestly, train bathrooms are sort of gross most places). Caltrain has always been sort of luxury, though; the median Caltrain rider has a >100k household income, which come to think of it, might be one of the highest median rider incomes for a public transit system in the world.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#102

19 million annually. I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze here. They should focus on making Caltrain run reliably timely, and safely for the passengers. Once we get the ridership numbers up we can easily make up for the electricity efficiency.

Electrification wasn't just an efficiency thing, it also made the service much better because of the faster acceleration - IIRC my travel time to SF on weekends went from 75 to 50 minutes, which opens up a lot of use cases.

The other important implication is how Caltrain could be routed through underground tunnels to Salesforce transit center. 4th and king isn't super nice and, correct me if I'm wrong, but it isn't well connected to other modes of transport. Maybe some muni buses.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#103
They are using less electricity than expected. The article neglects to specify whether this is due to higher than expected efficiency, or higher than expected downtime. Not that there is necessarily a problem with the technology, but energy efficiency estimates should be expected to already be quite accurate, all the technology is super old. If the efficiency is not in fact higher, I think the article is written a little disingenuously, they should really be more specific.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#104
post #92

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…

I think BART struggles with who it's meant to serve now, since it was clearly designed for ultra-peak weekday commute traffic. Recovery for weekend ridership is way better than weekday. I also agree that the governance structure for BART is weird and overly complex. Why do I elect a BART director? Why are they in their own special BART districts completely discontinuous from the 10 other ways we have sliced up the Ba…

Wait, BART director is an elected position? Why don't I get to vote on it?

(Also, while I am biased towards Caltrain, the new trains beat traffic on 101/280 San Francisco↔San Jose during rush hour).

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Chicago has CTA police and the suburban rail system Metra has its own police also.

CTA doesn’t have its own police. That’s just normal CPD.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#107
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!

It has been great hasn't it?!? The difference between running every 30 minutes on weekends vs ever 2 hours is the difference between hopping on the train up to Redwood City for lunch with a friend and then back again. Versus one of us driving one way or the other. If they can electrify the San Jose to Gilroy segment that will be even better.

I think they are running into issues with that because they don't own the rail lines, so they will probably go with batteries rather than overhead lines.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#108
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It also needs a much bigger emphasis on transit oriented development. In Japan the best place to eat in town is often in the train station or within a few feet of it. In the US the stops are often some of the worst places like parking lots or run down parts of town. Rarely have I seen good shopping/dining/living integrated into BA, or even US in general, transit systems.

What do you mean? Subway in 4th and King is fire

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#109
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup not to mention that the fumes from diesel engines got into the cars so you tended to avoid the ones close to the engine. Its a HUGE qol improvement!

Also makes waiting at either end, San Jose or San Francisco more pleasant with cleaner air to breathe instead of fumes if you are a little early.

San Jose unfortunately has the Gilroy commuter trains idling in the station :(

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#110
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My "favorite" story: BART Withholding Surveillance Videos Of Crime To Avoid 'Stereotypes' https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/07/09/bart-withholdin... >

[flagged]

Those appear to be sarcastic quotes, not scare quotes.
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