SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA: Transit/Transportation News - Page 116

fflint · #**2301** Posted **Jun 17, 2015, 8:13 PM**

Maybe that 'mean' look can finally get all the 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 double-parkers to move their vehicles off the tracks?

northbay · #**2302** Posted **Jun 17, 2015, 8:25 PM**

Sleek! The things next to the muni logo look like whiskers so that it helps give a softer "cutesy" look (rather than mean) for me.

CharlesCO · #**2303** Posted **Jun 17, 2015, 9:16 PM**

At least they're going with a proper, red color Muni livery and not that weird, teal rubbish one that we initially saw in the mockups, right?

Busy Bee · #**2304** Posted **Jun 17, 2015, 9:39 PM**

^ I had the impression that was just to assist the general public in differentiating between the four options anyway and not a serious livery proposal. I could be wrong though.

Busy Bee · #**2305** Posted **Jun 17, 2015, 9:47 PM**

Im also really curious whether those truck skirts depicted in the renderings make it into the final product. They really aid in making the cars look sleek.

CharlesCO · #**2306** Posted **Jun 18, 2015, 3:11 PM**

Look at this! First pictures of the first new BART car to be manufactured in centuries!

http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2015/news20150617-1

viewguysf · #**2307** Posted **Jun 18, 2015, 5:58 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlesCO

Look at this! First pictures of the first new BART car to be manufactured in centuries!
[url]http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2015/news20150617-1[/ur l]

In this century!

AndrewK · #**2308** Posted **Jun 18, 2015, 6:46 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

The SFMTA had a mock-up of the new Muni cars on display yesterday:

kinda reminds me of:

Grantenfuego · #**2309** Posted **Jun 18, 2015, 7:23 PM**

I really like the look of the new trains. Having more space in the interior will be so nice!

Will these new trains reduce travel time at all? Faster acceleration or travel speeds? Or are they bound by the speeds of the old trains that will still be on the lines?

northbay · #**2310** Posted **Jun 25, 2015, 2:45 AM**

An aerial photo of the Haystack Bridge in Petaluma taken on May 19th, 2015

https://m.facebook.com/sonomamarintrain/...97555/1129873123709002/?type=1&source=48

northbay · #**2311** Posted **Jul 1, 2015, 5:00 PM**

Great news!

Quote:

SMART secures $11 million grant to purchase three more rail cars

Photo illustration showing a SMART train with three cars. (PHOTO: SMART)

BY GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
June 30, 2015, 1:19PM

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit authority received an $11 million state grant Tuesday to purchase three more rail cars for the commuter rail system scheduled to begin operating in December 2016, state and local officials said.

State Transportation Agency Secretary Brian Kelly and state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, announced the SMART grant, part of a package of 14 grants totaling $224 million to support public transportation and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The three additional cars will boost SMART’s seating capacity by 35 percent, officials said. Because of the escalating costs for rail cars, the grant also was estimated to have saved taxpayers about $11 million, according to state officials.

“It’s a big deal,” said Farhad Mansourian, the rail authority’s general manager, expressing thanks to Kelly and McGuire for securing a piece of the competitive grant funding.

The three cars will expand SMART’s existing fleet of 14 cars, which operate in two-car sets, enabling the system to run a trio of three-car sets, Mansourian said. The new cars are “middle cars” that will sandwich between two of the existing cars, he said.

That configuration boosts passenger capacity from 320 people sitting and standing to 450 people in the three-car sets, he said.

The added capacity will help enable SMART to extend service from the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport to Windsor, a link currently missing from the rail development plan. The authority also needs $39 million to lay track from the airport area to Windsor, Mansourian said.

SMART took delivery of four gray-and-green rail cars in April and has the other 10 on order, he said.

...

With the price of rail cars expected to double after 2017, the latest grant saves SMART — and ultimately taxpayers — $11 million, Mansourian said.

...

The rail project will take more than 1.4 million car trips off Highway 101 annually and reduce greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming, by at least 124,000 pounds per day, the agency’s website says.

The 14 state grants help support about $720 million in public transportation investments and reduce an estimated 860,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of taking 180,000 cars off the road, the State Transportation Agency said in a press release.

The grants come from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund using proceeds from the state’s cap-and-trade auctions.

You can reach Staff Writer Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or [email protected]. On Twitter @guykovner.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4138123-181/smart-secures-11-million-grant

northbay · #**2312** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 4:07 PM**

Went to check out the SMART train yesterday parked outside the Marin Co Fair at the future Civic Center Station. The train will also be there today and tomorrow, available for viewing 12pm-7pm.

Hard to tell from the photos, but first thing you realize walking up to this thing, is that this is a REAL train - not some puny light rail train.

One car has a bathroom, the other a small concession stand (and yes, you will be able to travel between cars)

Busy Bee · #**2313** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 5:32 PM**

If by "real train" you mean looks typically American... being designed without an ounce of 🞵🞵🞵 appeal or current fashionability, built twice as heavy as needed and has all the aesthetic appeal of an armored vehicle, than yes, it's a "real train."

I would much prefer this than those bespoke tanks:

Pesa

...or the new Stadler Flirt (off the shelf) DMU's ordered by TexasRail:

Stadler

northbay · #**2314** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 7:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

If by "real train" you mean looks typically American... being designed without an ounce of 🞵🞵🞵 appeal or current fashionability, built twice as heavy as needed and has all the aesthetic appeal of an armored vehicle, than yes, it's a "real train."

Wow. Talk about trolling. That's just your opinion, man.

By real train, I mean it's not streetcar-like.

If you couldn't tell from the pictures, the train IS damn 🞵🞵🞵🞵, was designed by the Japanese, and is FRA-compliant (the trains you show aren't). This line is being shared with freight so that is a must.

It also goes 80mph, and is CHEAPER.

I've been to Japan several times and have ridden dozens if not hundreds of trains (including Shinkansens). I know what a real train is, and this is a real train.

Busy Bee · #**2315** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 8:10 PM**

A post with a strong opinion does not "trolling" make. I've read these forums since 1998, and a member since 2006. I'm fairly confident that excludes me from being labelled a "troll."

northbay · #**2316** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 8:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

A post with a strong opinion does not "trolling" make. I've read these forums since 1998, and a member since 2006. I'm fairly confident that excludes me from being labelled a "troll."

Look, I'm just posting pictures of my local train system under construction and someone comes in and says my system 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵. If that's not trolling, then it certainly isn't very nice or positive behavior.

I don't go in other region's forums putting down everything (though I do follow other regions).

Nexis4Jersey · #**2317** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 9:26 PM**

Actually the trains Busy-Bee show are FRA Compliment....and are real trains used in 60% of the World with the exception of the US....and Canada....

northbay · #**2318** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 9:34 PM**

Great. I never said they weren't real trains. This is forum for the Bay Area, not the rest of the world.

Geez, you guys make me not want to go through all the trouble of sharing pictures on this forum!

redblock · #**2319** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 10:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by northbay

Wow. Talk about trolling. That's just your opinion, man.

By real train, I mean it's not streetcar-like.

If you couldn't tell from the pictures, the train IS damn 🞵🞵🞵🞵, was designed by the Japanese, and is FRA-compliant (the trains you show aren't). This line is being shared with freight so that is a must.

It also goes 80mph, and is CHEAPER.

I've been to Japan several times and have ridden dozens if not hundreds of trains (including Shinkansens). I know what a real train is, and this is a real train.

When SMART and DCTA ordered their equipment the FRA split was still in effect. SMART went with the cheaper FRA compliant cars and DCTA went with Stadler GTWs which at the time required temporal separation as on New Jersey's Riverline and Austin's Capital Metro.

While the GTWs were on order, DCTA went to the FRA and received alternative certification as shown here.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/pa...n-County-Transportation-Authority--31230

For a brief time DCTA operated some trains with leased RDCs and their new GTWs.

The FLIRT3 train had better be FRA certified now since Fort Worth's TEXRAIL will share 3 miles of Union Pacific mainline between downtown Fort Worth and north Fort Worth.

I like the SMART trains and the GTWs and the FLIRT3s. But I am so old I like the RDCs, too.

CharlesCO · #**2320** Posted **Jul 2, 2015, 10:29 PM**

There's nothing wrong with some reasonable criticism of a train design. Many people (including locals) were far, far more critical of the Denver RTD commuter rail train design, which is much boxier and utilitarian than the SMART car. Some people even used the SMART cars as an example of a better looking FRA-compliant train than RTD's Hyundais.

The SMART project appears to be a success. Could it have better looking trains? It's possible, but we can't all have trains that look like the TGV, and at the end of the day, it's still transportation after all.