Caltrain HSR Compatibility Blog

Caltrain is working on their level boarding roadmap.

Components of trip time.

Here is a punch list that Caltrain could address to improve the passenger experience.

The comment section from the last post has overflowed, so here is an open thread to keep the discussions going.

Today, Caltrain is hardly recognizable with regular and punctual half-hour service all day, every day, using swift and comfortable trains that are the envy of any North American regional rail system.

The comment section from the last post is about to overflow, so here is an open thread to keep the discussions going.

Some good news: Caltrain is working on a level boarding plan, as documents requested under the Public Records Act attest.

A complication in Caltrain's coming transition to level boarding is found in the train's bathroom, an amenity that requires equal access for passengers with reduced mobility under ADA regulations.

Cars turning off from a grade crossing onto the tracks are a perennial problem for Caltrain, often resulting in multi-hour cascading delays or worse, dangerous collisions.

Electric service starts this weekend.

Open thread time!

San Jose is striving to redesign and expand its Cahill Street station, named for the (still living) former Santa Clara County board of supervisors chair Rod Diridon, to meet the needs of future rail service including BART and high-speed rail.

Arrow level boarding platforms at San Bernardino, CA Comments to old posts on this blog are stored in a moderation queue that your author doesn't visit often enough.

Caltrain recently published a strategic financial plan update, where we learn that maintaining each EMU in the new electric fleet in good working order is expected to cost $1.2 - 1.5 million per year, a significant increase from last year's estimate.

It's 2024, the year that Caltrain is supposed to go electric.

Caltrain's proposed weekday peak service Caltrain has started to pull back the curtain on their fall 2024 service pattern, when the electric fleet will (finally!)

The good news: Caltrain has initiated a small study effort to develop a level boarding roadmap, as part of its portfolio of capital projects.

Barry the BEMU, Caltrain's new mascot "Don't tell me what you value.

Link21, the nascent megaproject to beef up the Bay Area's passenger rail network, features at its core a new underground transbay passenger rail crossing between Oakland and San Francisco.

The recent storms demonstrate once again that Caltrain underpass flooding is a clear and present danger to the public.

One phrase we're going to hear a lot in the next couple of years is "fiscal cliff," a sudden disequilibrium between Caltrain's revenues and expenses caused by the withdrawal of the temporary federal subsidies instituted during the pandemic.

CBOSS Dumpster Fire Update: the CBOSS case is still making its way through San Mateo County Superior Court (under case file 17CIV00786).

California's high-speed rail project has finally reached a milestone 14 years after the passage of Proposition A in 2008 with the board's certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report for the San Francisco - San Jose project section.

Wouldn't it be great if you could quantify the service benefit of capital improvements, to compare and prioritize them by how much better train service results?

It's been a while since the last post, but fear not this blog is still alive.