SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News

[k1052]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

All it really takes is money and also the Capital Corridor route may be a bit easier to do than the CalTrain because on the Peninsula there are so many grade crossings which, if not removed (by making the crossing above or below grade) will slow even an electric train to a crawl. I don't recall so many such crossings on the Capital Corridor route. What can slow that down, though, is the Sacramento River bridges. I was in a train one time that waited 4 hours while the bridge was open for a ship to pass which turned out to be a phantom ship--didn't exist.

While Caltrain maximum service speed will still be 79mph trips will take less time due to faster acceleration (EMUs) and reduced dwell times (bye gallery cars). Last I saw the cost of full grade separation in the Caltrain corridor is aprox $10B. Absent some significant state and federal support that money isn't likely to be forthcoming soon.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by craigs

I've seen some aspirational 'vision statements' for electrifying the Capitol Corridor, and I'm all for it, but do they really have a credible plan?

Caltrain is not funding the electrification with its own money. Most of the money is coming from CHSR and the USDOT. Are there many other commuter rail operators in the USA that will be sharing tracks with a HSR train - where the money to electrify the tracks is coming from? Caltrain is basically fully funding its brand new trains - not the catenary above them nor the electrical power along the corridor.
Is California planning to run CHSR over the Capitol Corridor? It is fairly easy to fund electrification using someone else's money.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

All it really takes is money and also the Capital Corridor route may be a bit easier to do than the CalTrain because on the Peninsula there are so many grade crossings which, if not removed (by making the crossing above or below grade) will slow even an electric train to a crawl. I don't recall so many such crossings on the Capital Corridor route. What can slow that down, though, is the Sacramento River bridges. I was in a train one time that waited 4 hours while the bridge was open for a ship to pass which turned out to be a phantom ship--didn't exist.

If I remember right, part of the state rail plan is to remove all at grade crossings. I'm not sure if that counts super rural areas or just urban..

Originally Posted by electricron

Is California planning to run CHSR over the Capitol Corridor? It is fairly easy to fund electrification using someone else's money.

No, it's just electrification. They are considering making capitol corridor passenger only, and to move freight to the old SNR tracks.
Oh and projects all over the country are a combination of federal, state, and other funds so it's not a big deal. We voted for a bond so at least let us have that...please?

[electricron]

Originally Posted by TWAK

Oh and projects all over the country are a combination of federal, state, and other funds so it's not a big deal. We voted for a bond so at least let us have that...please?

Did I suggest Caltrain or Capitol Corridor should not get any funds from others?
What I tried to show was how Caltrain found the money - getting lots of funding from CHSR - and why the Capitol Corridor may not since CHSR will not be using that route.

[redblock]

The first Stadler electric train set for the San Jose to San Francisco Caltrain corridor will begin a two month test period.in April on a test track at the Stadler plant in Salt Lake City.

https://www.progressiverailroading.c...n-April--60083

[M II A II R II K]

New tax for Caltrain? Measure this fall could fund trains every 10 minutes

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/04/...ry-10-minutes/

.....

- The measure would raise $108 million per year for the agency with a new sales tax of one-eighth of a cent in Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties if voters approve it this fall. Caltrain would put that money toward its ambitious plans to provide more frequent service with a new fleet of electrified trains. That would allow the agency to shift over the next several years from a commuter railroad whose schedule riders must plan their days around to one more comparable to BART, with service so frequent passengers just show up at a station and ride. The campaign took a first step toward the November ballot on Wednesday, when the SamTrans board of directors gave its support to a potential measure. --- Funding from the tax measure would help Caltrain run 168 trains each weekday between San Jose and San Francisco by 2022, officials say, with trains arriving every 10 minutes during peak commute hours. Gilroy and southern Santa Clara County would see more frequent service as well. Looking further into the future, Caltrain has plans to eventually run over 200 trips per day and extend its tracks to downtown San Francisco’s Salesforce Transit Center.

.....

[homebucket]

With the shelter in place for the foreseeable future, now would be a great time to get all these transportation construction projects completed with minimal disturbance to commuters.

[TWAK]

Originally Posted by homebucket

With the shelter in place for the foreseeable future, now would be a great time to get all these transportation construction projects completed with minimal disturbance to commuters.

They been using it to do maintenance, and this is a good time to speed up projects if we can.

[Pedestrian]

BART trains are mostly empty, but that doesn’t stop gate jumpers — some cars downright scary
Phil Matier April 8, 2020 Updated: April 8, 2020 6:28 a.m.

BART ridership has plummeted by more than 93 percent since the stay-at-home order was issued, and that has led to shorter service hours, longer waits between trains and near-empty stations. What hasn’t changed? The fare evaders riding the system for free.

Three weeks into the Bay Area shutdown, and BART’s two morning sweeps at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Station were pulling an average of 238 fare evaders a day off the morning-commute trains. Many of those ejected for not having a ticket were homeless or apparently mentally ill, BART officials said.

“And some are riding the system all day as a shelter,” BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said.

BART had 24,909 riders on Monday, far below the 405,000 average daily ridership before the nine-county order went out for all nonessential Bay Area workers to stay at home.

“You might have thought that a 93% reduction in riders would have meant a reduction in fare evaders as well, but that hasn’t been the case,” BART Director Debora Allen said. She added that the people who jump the gates aren’t just cheats, they are potential health hazards to the other riders and to themselves . . . .

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...t-15185631.php

[citizensf]

BART Unveils System Map for Future Milpitas and Berryessa Service

BART staff has finalized the next version of the BART system map that will be released once service to Milpitas and Berryessa begins. A date has not yet been announced and the project continues to prepare for revenue service.

The extension required rescaling to create the space needed to add South Bay details in preparation for the two new stations. Multiple improvements were made to the design to make it easier to read and to better highlight regional transit connectivity points. The map also shows the planned Phase II extension into Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara and the planned Irvington future station.

https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2020/news20200508

[SFBruin]

This is a definite improvement over the current map.

[OhioGuy]

Opening day set for long-awaited BART stations in Milpitas, San Jose

SAN JOSE — For the first time in BART history, trains will cross into Santa Clara County starting this June.

Will many riders make the trip?

Amid a global pandemic and the sweeping shelter-at-home orders from which the Bay Area is beginning to emerge, officials were excited to announce an opening date Tuesday for the very-long-awaited BART extension into Milpitas and San Jose.

At 7:56 a.m. on June 13, a Richmond-bound train will pick up passengers at the San Jose/Berryessa station, making BART’s first public train trip from San Jose, through Milpitas and continuing on what used to be known as the Warm Springs/South Fremont line. The trip also marks the end of a 20-year-odyssey to get the vital connection built to the Bay Area’s economic engine.

Construction is expected to get under way on Phase 2 of the transit agency’s extension into San Jose by 2022. When completed, trains will eventually pass through an audacious station in downtown San Jose and end their South Bay routes in Santa Clara. But that extension already has been pushed back to a possible 2029 or 2030 opening, with a projected cost that increased by $900 million last year.

Last month, VTA slashed a proposal to bore the world’s largest subway tunnel for nearly five miles beneath the city when officials determined it would cost $4 billion more than initially believed — and involve substantially more risk. Engineers now are pursuing two new ideas involving smaller tunnels and stacked station platforms.

How in the hell can you be off on your cost estimates by $4 billion? I understand there's a reason why they're called estimates, but I still can't fathom being off by $4 billion?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by OhioGuy

How in the hell can you be off on your cost estimates by $4 billion? I understand there's a reason why they're called estimates, but I still can't fathom being off by $4 billion?

Because they insisted on doing something that's never been done before, using the literal world's largest TBM. There's a lot of risk in that approach, maybe $4 billion of risk. The bigger the tunnel, the deeper it has to go to avoid subsidence issues on the surface, so the stations would be at least 10-12 stories below ground.

The new approach (and the one suggested by advocates all along) uses a more reasonable-sized TBM and has been done several times in other cities around the world, most notably Barcelona. The stations will still be deep, but not quite so insanely deep.

[plutonicpanda]

That would have been really cool if they did it and part of me wants them to but I understand why they scrapped it.

[Pedestrian]

Will Facebook pull back on support for Dumbarton rail link across the Bay?
By Ryan Fernandez – Associate editor, Silicon Valley Business Journal
an hour ago

Facebook is “reassessing” whether it wants to continue its current support for a new rail line across the San Francisco Bay.

For several years, Facebook has been exploring the possibility of opening another transit linkage between the Peninsula and the East Bay, near the Dumbarton Bridge. This would connect the company’s Menlo Park headquarters — situated near the bridge’s western end — to potential outposts on land it controls directly across the bay in Fremont’s Ardenwood district.

However, The Almanac reports that the social media giant said last week that it is looking at focusing its funds on other efforts, given the current Covid-19 pandemic . . . .

"In light of Covid-19, we are reassessing this long-term commitment as we focus our attention on addressing the immediate needs of people in the community struggling with the economic impacts of the pandemic," Juan Salazar, director of local policy and community engagement for Facebook, said in a statement, per The Almanac.

For its cross-bay Dumbarton ambitions, Facebook had found allies in the Plenary Group and the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans). The entities forged the "Cross Bay Transit Partners" and seek to add a public transit option further south of the current BART line running between Oakland and San Francisco, likely akin to the old Dumbarton rail line that opened in 1910 and has long-since closed down.

If Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) withdraws, the Plenary Group — an investor and developer of public infrastructure projects — said it would still be interested in the project . . . .

However, a SamTrans representative did wonder where funding would come from for environmental and fiscal studies, should Facebook choose to pull back . . . .

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...iJ9#g/418068/1

[redblock]

A further report on Caltrain's KISS EMUs.

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger...nset-on-track/

And here a report including interior photos.

https://www.railwaygazette.com/news/.../56632.article

[OhioGuy]

Two New South Bay BART Stations Open for Service

A ribbon-cutting and ceremonial inaugural train ride for dignitaries took place Friday morning and was livestreamed for the public.

"This day has been one that all of us in Santa Clara County have been waiting for for a very long time," said Nuria Fernandez, CEO of Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. “Having this project in the heart of Silicon Valley means that we can get more people to work and more ideas to market."

Santa Clara County voters approved the funding 20 years ago, and it was 12 years before VTA broke ground.

[phoenixboi08]

Originally Posted by Pedestrian

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...iJ9#g/418068/1

Is the idea to extend BART as opposed to CalTrain?

I presumed it would be the latter, which would be the contingency for reaching Merced/Madera until the tunnel from San Jose for hsr can be completed.

[AndrewK]

A major change coming for Muni Metro when train service restarts:

https://www.sfgate.com/public-transp...e-15353389.php

Regular riders of several of Muni’s Metro rail lines will experience big changes in service come August.
Rail service will return after months of changes and reductions due to the shelter-in-place order, but some lines will no longer use the subway in order to reduce backups and delays. With those backups and delays come crowded platforms and increased time on packed trains, which can increase the risks of COVID-19.
Of the more major changes, the J Church will no longer enter the subway and will terminate at Market Street. This prioritizes the higher capacity routes — the N Judah, M Ocean View, T Third and S Shuttle — but the agency said there will be more frequent shuttle service on the line.
Due to ridership volumes, the K Ingleside and L Taraval lines will be combined, and will no longer enter the subway at West Portal Station. (When SFGATE ran the data on which line was late the most frequently, the KT Ingleside/Third was the worst.)

As someone who regularly takes the J, this will be a huge improvement in reliability. This change is also the first step in this proposal, which has been around for some time:

http://newmunimetro.com/m-market/

[181Fremont]

It appears Van Ness BRT construction (actual BRT, not utilities) is commencing around VN and Turk. Wasn’t able to get any photos. Most of the roadwork has been moved to the center lanes.