From: adrian@ntmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt)
Subject: Re: CalTrain scheduling musings
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc, Mountain View, CA
Distribution: ca
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 19:28:45 GMT

In article <1992Dec16.183159.1500@s1.gov>, lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich) writes:
|> In article <liptmtINNgec@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> geo@shilah.Eng.Sun.COM writes:
|> > many of the upgrade cost discussions (especially the Bart vs. Caltrain
|> > things) don't take a lot of necessary Caltrain costs into account.
                                 ^^^^^^^^^

|> These include:
|> 
|> Building over- and/or underpasses so that none of the tracks _ever_
|> have to be crossed to get to one of them.  BART has this feature, but
|> CalTrain doesn't for the majority of stations.

This isn't *necessary*, only desireable.  BART *must* have this.

|> Eliminating all grade crossings and fencing off the tracks.  BART has
|> this, but CalTrain still has several grade separations and un-fenced
|> track.

This isn't *necessary*, only desireable, and really only called for at
selected locations.  BART *must* have this.


|> This has the added merit of making the tracks more difficult to stop
|> up, since for a grade crossing, the rail tops are level with the road,
|> leaving only slots for the wheel flanges. These slots are vulnerable
|> in a way that away-from-street rails aren't.

Ha ha ha!  This isn't a problem.  This idea of CalTrain flangeways
(that's what they are) getting "stopped up" just doesn't happen.  It's
a non-issue.  (Loren, where do you get this stuff?)


|> Having durable track. BART has this; a very large fraction of BART's
|> roadbed is either concrete slab or concrete ties on gravel.

This also, isn't *necessary*, only desireable, and then only in some
people's opinion, depending on economics.  A very fitting analogy is
the difference between a shake and a tile roof.  A wood shake roof is
perfectly serviceable and durable over it's shorter lifetime.  To make
up for it is cheaper and lighter.  There are trade-offs, but to suggest
that CalTrain will require "durable" track using concrete ties in order
to be run at BART-level frequencies is just as dumb as saying you've
got to have a tile roof if it's going to rain twice as much.  By the
way, much of CalTrain's rail is 50 years old or more.  Sounds pretty
durable to me.  (Check the dates on the webbing of the rails yourself
sometime.)  Many of it's structures , such as the San Francisquito
Creek trestle, were built more than 80 or 90 years ago.  Sounds pretty
durable to me.  Several of its stations are over 100 years old.  Sounds
pretty durable to me.


|> Electrification.  Standard on heavily used lines.  Maintenance
|> and breakdowns for the trains are probably a lot less.

This is you're best point.  However, all the upgrade cost discussions
I'm aware of all include electrification costs ($134M for catenary,
substations, and electric locomotives between San Francisco and San
Jose-Lick, the site of the planned joint Amtrak/CalTrain maintenance
facility).  This, incidentally, is far less than the $170-$180M that
the Colma BART *station* is costing.  Source: Caltrans "Feasibility
Study for Electrifying the CalTrain/PCS Railroad", Final Report, Oct.
1992.


|> BART has proved highly reliable in the time I have used it, while
|> there are numerous CalTrain horror stories.

Don't despair, BART has its share of horror stories too:  skipped
stations, foul-ups, big delays, people trying to traverse the TT-tube
on foot, fatalities, homocides, flaky equipment, trains that constantly
"hunt" for the "right" speed (due to lousy software), rails in need of
grinding so badly that cause a howl so loud that it's tough to keep
a conversation going, fires on trains--including *the* big fire that
consumed the better part of a couple coaches in the TT-tube in the 70s,
etc. 

By the way, has anyone notices how good CalTrain on-time performace has
been lately.  I mean old-timers have even been saying things like "I
missed my train the other day for the first time, and it felt good
because they haven't been running this close to schedule as long as I
can remember"...

I wonder how long it will last though, because there is a lot of work
planned over the next few fiscal years that has the potential to cause
some delays.  I'm quite optomistic though because I've been quite
impressed with the Amtrak management and their commitment to doing a
good job and keeping the trains on time.

-- 

Adrian Brandt (415) 940-2379
UUCP: ...!ames!ntmtv!adrian
ARPA: ntmtv!adrian@ames.arc.nasa.gov