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Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
121–130 of 305 posts
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#122Earlier 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…
Speaking of BART, this story is priceless: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/bart-seat-slasher-hur... The firm that reupholstered damaged BART seats in the ‘80s paid people to slash them so they’d get more business.
>paid people to slash them so they’d get more business
Charlie Chaplin did it first https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izqhtBPd4VQ
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
You do. San Jose’s districts were not up in the most recent election https://www.bart.gov/about/bod/elections
What district do they have? I don't see anyone on this list that seems like they cover the area: https://www.bart.gov/about/bod
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you copy Japan policies you can get something much closer to Japan, it's not magic. (Transit oriented upzoning, no parking minimums, and businesses in the station building.)
If it's not magic why isn't it being done? That's the point. This news is rather pathetic strictly because a better scenario is NOT magic.
The economy is built around juicing home values. The costs make it too expensive for eminent domain and nimby people mobilize now.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#125It's great, but it took more than 20 years to get here due to environmental reviews and shaky funding. ...and this was just re-fitting an existing, relatively short stretch of track! We (as Californians) have GOT to do better than this! There are huge infrastructure projects that we need to undertake in the coming years. We have got to cut the red tape and properly fund projects.
> more than 20 years to get here due to environmental reviews
How thorough were they being?
> We (as Californians) have GOT to do better than this!
We pay more taxes than anyone else in the country. /We/ are doing our part. The administration needs to be held accountable.
> We have got to cut the red tape and properly fund projects.
We need to light a fire under the administration and someone needs to take a wrecking ball through the state assembly.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
4th & King has much better connections to transit and neighborhoods, and I hope they never build that tunnel.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#127They claim that "Caltrain is running its service on 100% renewable energy", but they are connected to the same grid as everyone else. It doesn't really make sense to say, half of our electricity is green, so customer X is renewable, but customer Y is not renewable.
You can generally choose what kind of power generation mix you want from a utility. eg I am on a 100% renewable plan.
Out of the 25GW being generated right now only 3GW are renewable. There is a corner where there is more demand from "100% renewable" customers than there actually is available renewable energy. There is no point at which this gets made up.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do. You're not being realistic. Almost everyone would like to have a choice between getting on a subway for super cheap or driving through traffic. You're saying they would rather have no choice between the two options? Come on. The Bay area (people) want top of the line transit, all of California wants it. It's similar to how Ethiopia wants to get out of poverty. Both places can't get what they want for similar…
They do. You're not being realistic. Almost everyone would like to have a choice between getting on a subway for super cheap or driving through traffic. You're saying they would rather have no choice between the two options? Come on Sure, everyone wants an easy commute where the train picks them up in front of their house and drops them off at the office, but they also want their house with yard in Walnut Creek. Or l…
> but do enough people want it to make it worth building?
The reason we don't build more density isn't lack of demand (see: the price of rent), it is entirely political.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do. You're not being realistic. Almost everyone would like to have a choice between getting on a subway for super cheap or driving through traffic. You're saying they would rather have no choice between the two options? Come on. The Bay area (people) want top of the line transit, all of California wants it. It's similar to how Ethiopia wants to get out of poverty. Both places can't get what they want for similar…
They do. You're not being realistic. Almost everyone would like to have a choice between getting on a subway for super cheap or driving through traffic. You're saying they would rather have no choice between the two options? Come on Sure, everyone wants an easy commute where the train picks them up in front of their house and drops them off at the office, but they also want their house with yard in Walnut Creek. Or l…
>Sure, everyone wants an easy commute where the train picks them up in front of their house and drops them off at the office, but they also want their house with yard in Walnut Creek. Or lacking that, their single family house in the Sunset.
You can have both. Tokyo is twice the size of the bay area. Density isn't the issue. It's incompetence.
Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected
#130The 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!
Huh? The new BART cars sound as screechy as ever to me, much louder than the old diesel Caltrain, never mind the new electric Caltrain.