Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected • Hacker News Board

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#251

Post by numpad0 » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

aetherspawn wrote: post #86

s0rce wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Just build more trains any train infrastructure is so much better than cars, they barely need improvement, they just need to be built

But for example if they used PMM squirrel cage motors etc, they would be nice and smooth, cheaper to build, more energy efficient. On the battery front, using car-style or truck-style EV battery modules would be more robust and would reduce cost by somewhere in the order of 50%. Instead, most trains still use induction motors (this is the high pitch whine you hear) and many train battery designs use industrial style…

They care a lot more about robustness, maintenance, max continuous power, than cost, volume, or short duration ratings. Commuter trains are used for a decade and half, then sold to developing nation to be used couple more. No surprise that they're choose rack batteries with thick cables to bus bars over plastic packs in trays, if they even consider using degradable batteries at all.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#252

Post by numpad0 » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #99

aetherspawn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But for example if they used PMM squirrel cage motors etc, they would be nice and smooth, cheaper to build, more energy efficient. On the battery front, using car-style or truck-style EV battery modules would be more robust and would reduce cost by somewhere in the order of 50%. Instead, most trains still use induction motors (this is the high pitch whine you hear) and many train battery designs use industrial style…

What are you talking about? The noise you hear from trains is the wheels. Battery trains basically don't exist because of this cool invention called a wire and pantograph.

Electric commuter trains has coil whines, same thing as spaceship sounds Teslas make when launched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0B2bvd9rFQ

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#253

Post by sofixa » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:08 PM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #234

sofixa wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One major example which Marco first became popular with was that he owned a barn but wasn’t allowed to use it for the factory since it was a farm on paper. The government told him to move to a designated factory area. He argued that it made no sense since he was living in a very remote area, and the barn was of high quality. What else should he do with the barn? Why would he need to build something new somewhere el…

You're going to end up in a position where you're telling a farmer how to manage & value farmland. That'll lead to more misses than hits.

> You're going to end up in a position where you're telling a farmer how to manage

Funny you say that. Not only does that actually happen in pretty much all developed country, it's actually needed for a variety of reasons. There are subsidies to incentivise the "correct" crops (you don't want all farmers only doing cash crops for export, rendering your country very vulnerable to import markets to sustain itself), there are also rules/policies to rotate crops to avoid top soil erosion which could be devastating, there are rules on what types of pesticides can be used, etc etc etc etc.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#254

Post by NewJazz » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:14 PM UTC

timewizard wrote: post #120

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…

> with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area There are 30% more violent assaults on BART vs Muni. > if only there were some other way for them to get around! Do you want them to respond rapidly or eventually?

Are you saying that they need vehicles to get to the crime locations faster? Are vehicles really faster than them being at the BART station on foot?

If anything that statistic you cited shows that their existing policies are not a deterrent. Perhaps because they are in their vehicles instead of on train cars where the crimes are happening.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#255

Post by NewJazz » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:22 PM UTC

ungreased0675 wrote: post #246

timewizard wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than going down to the assembly and yelling what do you propose? We could call the representatives, recall the representatives, create a ballot measure, or vote differently next time.

Stop re-electing the same people. I vote for someone different in my state’s partisan primaries, because I believe high turnover of elected representatives is beneficial. I may still vote for the incumbent in the general election, but never in the primary.

There are term limits in california.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#256

Post by terinjokes » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #66

offmycloud wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With prior consent, the authority of California peace officers extends to any place in the state. [1] You would think that the counties could get together and work out an MoU. 1. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...

Most city police and sheriffs officers have jurisdiction anywhere in their state, AFAIK. They typically stay in their area, but if they’re pursuing a suspect they don’t break off if they cross the city limits.

Which nearly any campus police will tell you during orientation.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#257

Post by NewJazz » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:23 PM UTC

Dalewyn wrote: post #163

timewizard wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than going down to the assembly and yelling what do you propose? We could call the representatives, recall the representatives, create a ballot measure, or vote differently next time.

[flagged]

This claim is serious, but unsourced and completely nonsensical.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#258

Post by SoftTalker » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:38 PM UTC

selectodude wrote: post #106

SoftTalker wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hm, maybe CPD has a CTA detail then? I thought there was (or used to be) a CTA police division that had their own uniforms, cars, etc. I seem to also remember a CHA police for the housing projects, but it's been a long time since I lived there.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#259

Post by Johnny555 » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:53 PM UTC

ninetyninenine wrote: post #193

Johnny555 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to see some evidence for that -- sure, there are a lot of people in big cities that are happy with high density (but even many of them move out to the suburbs when they decide to settle down and have kids), but there are many people in the USA that won't give up their 2000 sq ft house with 3 car garage that fits their F150 pickup. Much of my midwest family is that way - they couldn't believe how tiny my "cit…

you're severely out of touch. Only around 15% of Californians can afford to buy a home. Why can't they buy a home? LACK of Inventory. You can see this on the news, you can quote experts everywhere saying this. There's not enough houses and that raises prices. So how do you lower prices? Build more homes. How do you build more homes? Increase density. Yeah if you're in the 15% sure, buy a big home. If you're in the 85…

You can't force developers to build what they can't sell at a profit.

I'm sure San Francisco would love to have more billion dollar high density buildings, but can a developer sell enough million dollar condos to pay for them? Is there any evidence that it's zoning that's keeping more residentials towers from being built in downtown SF?

>Bro, that catastrophic disaster is called global warming

It's not a catastrophic disaster yet -- nearly all Americans sat at home in comfort watching the LA fires. People don't see a disaster if it doesn't affect them, then it's just a tragedy.

Re: Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected

#260

Post by Dalewyn » Sat, Jan 25, 2025, 4:57 PM UTC

NewJazz wrote: post #257

Dalewyn wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

This claim is serious, but unsourced and completely nonsensical.

I already sourced it, but if you missed it here it is again: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...

* A California Driver's License or Identification Card does not completely demonstrate one's right to vote, it only demonstrates residency. Neither does a Social Security Number, it only demonstrates taxes being levied. You must be a US citizen to vote, but anyone can get any or all of the three mentioned pieces of identification without US citizenship.

* Signature verification is of questionable efficacy at best. Most of us here likely agree that signing the back of your credit card in this day and age is hardly secure, why is that different in elections? Recounts also don't matter, because at that point the ballot is separated from the voter (ballots do not have identifying information); recounts cannot remove illegal ballots.

* California explicitly refuses asking the hypothetical voter to demonstrate their eligibility; see the cited law again.

* The claim that asking for voters to demonstrate their eligibility is disenfranchisment is, as someone who cares about free and fair elections, patented bullshit.

* Last is my anecdote, which I doubt needs repeating. I have no trust in Californian election integrity because California does nothing to convince me so.