Quote:
Originally Posted by edale
The Green Line runs along the median of the 105. And a fair amount of BART runs along freeway medians in the Bay Area, so there's a good amount of precedent in the state for this approach. Perhaps high speed rail has different considerations though.
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I'm well aware of the Green Line (now C Line) on the 105 (the rail line was actually included in the final design of the 105 Freeway, as a concession to the communities that the freeway tore through)... Metrolink also goes down the middle of part of the 10 Freeway in the SGV:
SGV Tribune
And yeah, I've ridden BART from Walnut Creek to SF, and part of the line goes down the middle of CA-24.
And part of the Gold Line (now A Line) goes down the median of the 210 Freeway... and that's what brought up my concern. It hasn't happened in a while (knock on wood), but there have been several incidents of big rig trucks crashing onto the A Line tracks on the 210 Freeway.
Metro
LA Times
Pasadena Star News
So far, there haven't been any truck into train crashes and no fatalities, but these have caused long delays on the Gold Line (clearing the wreck, inspecting the tracks, having to replace the overhead wires). There are plans to strenghthen and raise the barriers, but they haven't started construction yet. I don't know what it is about that stretch of the 210; as far as I know, there has been no such vehicle-onto-track incidents on the Green/C Line.
I haven't driven to Vegas in many years, but I remember a lot of big rig trucks going up/down the 15. I'm hoping they build really strong/high barriers for the high speed train.
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