18
votes
Caltrain electrifies San Francisco tracks for California High-Speed Rail
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- Title
- Caltrain Suspends Train Service Between San Francisco and Millbrae on Weekends to Expedite Electrification Project | Caltrain
- Published
- Aug 8 2023
- Word count
- 431 words
People talk a lot nowadays about whether expensive infrastructure projects are worth it or particularly efficient, but I think that’s the wrong thing to be worrying about. Every single dollar that goes into California HSR goes right back into the communities it’s being built in. As long as the contractors aren’t getting these jobs because of corruption, these dollars are going into creating union jobs and building infrastructure that will be able to be enjoyed by everyone one day.
In the 30s the works progress administration spent taxpayer money to build a bunch of random stuff all around the country to employ people who were out of work due to the depression. If you go around now there are parks and bridges from nearly a hundred years ago still standing that were built from that program that we still use today.
Why is public infrastructure seen as a waste of money? It has so many benefits to the economy and the people who get to enjoy it when it’s finished no matter what the cost is.
Yep. And the Central Valley in particular has historically been pretty underserved relative to other communities in California. The fact that the HSR line is going to be supporting these cities is important to their development not only during construction, but moving forward as they receive more travelers from other places.
The project reports place a lot of emphasis on how they hire local contractors and how important the project is to the area's economic stability. This kind of work is great for the country.
One way to think about this is that there are two benefits to employment: the worker gets paid and there is a social benefit of the work they do.
The benefit for the worker (and the economy due to them having a job) is still there regardless of the work they do. It could be a “bullshit job” like digging holes and filling them in again. But if they don’t do useful work, we are all poorer for it because there are always more things that need doing and they’re left undone.
It’s also not great for the worker. Who wants to be doing useless work?
And that’s also true if they’re doing useful work, but very inefficiently.
The people complaining might not be well-informed about the work being done. But in principle, they are right to complain about wasteful government projects. It’s true that someone is employed and some useful work got done, but in theory we could have had two or three times as much work done, depending on how inefficient it was.
There are plenty of other transportation upgrades that need doing. High speed rail could be much further along, and we lose the benefit of having it because there’s so much more work to do before it starts operating.
Or to put it another way, imagine how much better public transportation could be if public infrastructure projects were efficient?
The most important sources of waste are of course not due to individual workers slacking off. It’s systemic because large government projects are often poorly managed, and they struggle under a baroque legal regime that results in delays.
I agree that efficiency is important when considering which government project to fund, but often times people get so caught up in efficiency that they choose to not fund public works instead.
Is the opportunity cost really that high when the alternative is to not have public works projects and have more people in the service industry instead of a skilled trade?
The tradeoff is against all other work people could be doing, private or public. That’s absurdly general in the abstract, but in practice, specific individuals are fairly limited in what jobs they’re willing and able to do, which is why job hunts and hiring are hard.
Assuming we’re talking about the US, it’s certainly true that the US is a rich country and we can afford quite a bit of waste, but it’s also true that many people are suffering, there are widespread complaints about housing costs, and there are also environmental reasons to care about waste. Private construction also has a social benefit (people get a place to live, etc), and there are only so many people working in the trades. It’s physical work and people have physical limitations.
Speaking very generally, I think the US is only selectively concerned about efficiency and this results in persistent problems. Judging by what people talk about, political hot topics are more about justice and power. It should be possible to get both, but not when people who push for justice are oblivious about efficiency or think they’re independent concerns.
Part of the California High-Speed Rail initiative includes the electrification of existing tracks in the San Francisco–San Jose area, which currently only run diesel trains. Caltrain has begun working on this project, which will not only provide opportunities for high-speed rail in the cities, but improve efficiency, reliability, and environmental sustainability for BART, the Bay Area Rapit Transit agency. They plan to run electrified passenger trains by Fall 2024.
This month's weekend service reductions affect sections of track between San Francisco and Millibrae station, just south of the SF international airport. Bus bridge service will be available as needed.
This is one of the most important sections of the California High-Speed Rail project. The "last mile" of major rail lines near major population centers is often difficult and more expensive to renovate due to higher density and various construction restrictions. Once complete in Fall 2024, Caltrain's electrification will mark a major new section of track accessible to high-speed trains.
With CHSR's anticipated completion of the "Construction Package 4" (CP4) segment in Summer 2023, between the Tulare County line and Poplar Avenue near Bakersfield, significant progress is being made on the route. CP1–3 (p. VIII) are expected to be completed in 2026. The original 119-mile segment between Madera and Poplar Avenue will finish construction in mid-2028. It is my suspicion that, after the Initial Operating Segment (IOS) finishes construction in mid-2029 and opens for passenger service in late 2030, the San Francisco/San Jose–Merced section will be the next "self-sustaining" section they open, probably followed by the southern extension from Bakersfield to Palmdale. The segment between Palmdale and Burbank, near Los Angeles, is awaiting environmental review (approval expected 2023–2025), so construction won't begin for some time. Burbank to LA is approved but we don't have a construction timeline; LA to Anaheim is awaiting environmental review.
Check out the California High-Speed Rail 2023 Project Update Report for a review of the current state of affairs.
I’ve been following the CA HSR project for the last year or so and they seem to be making good progress on it. If I’m not mistaken, they seem to be hitting all the milestones they’ve expected to hit by now so the project is on track to be opened at the beginning of the next decade. Hopefully, this pushes the various rail systems in the Bay and LA to expand, become safer, and become more reliable.
A related question, will the HSR trains (if/when the system is fully operational) have their own tracks coming into San Francisco? Or will it be like Acela where it shares tracks with other trains that’ll slow it down as it gets north of Merced?
They are! Passenger service will begin between Merced and Bakersfield by 2030 if all goes well. The Authority needs another $8 billion from the federal government to make that happen, which it will almost undoubtedly get from the rail funding allocated by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The "bookend" connections to San Francisco and Los Angeles don't have a clear source of funding yet, but I'm optimistic that the completion of the Initial Operating Segment and the expected completion of Brightline West between LA and Las Vegas in 2027 will spur additional interest in railway funding for the region.
From the California High-Speed Rail 2023 Project Update Report (p. 77):
HSR will be sharing tracks with Caltrain from San Francisco to Gilroy. This is possible because Caltrain is electrifying its current route. The HSR route-only will be double-tracked for its entire length. The San Francisco–San José section is already quad-tracked, and I imagine they would be at least double-tracking the route to Gilroy (but probably quad-tracking if Caltrain needs to run there too).
Traffic on the Northeast Corridor is a thing, but the Acela is mostly speed-limited there because the tracks are old, twisty, and there are a lot of choke points. There are some ancient bridges in the NJ Marshlands that frequently break, for example. Running both local and express service does require multiple tracks for ideal service, but you technically don't need a separate right-of-way for HSR, you just need enough tracks for trains to pass each other. The Hudson Tunnel is only double-tracked (they'll build an additional two tracks in the next decade), but once you get to four tracks it's basically a non-issue outside of very high-traffic routes (parts of the NEC near NYC already have six tracks for this reason, though I doubt that would be necessary for San Francisco).
In general, a train won't be going at 220mph in a highly urbanized area anyway. Even in Paris, the TGV doesn't hit 300km/h until a good ways out of the city. It's generally cheaper and more realistic to share existing track rights-of-way where feasible, in situations like this, to avoid having to carry out more environmental reviews, purchase more land, and build more infrastructure from scratch. As long as it's fast enough in town to get the job done, it can get up to its highest speeds further out from stations.
I wish they would do something about the popularity of "suicide by Caltrain". Maybe install monitored infrared cameras along the tracks?
Pedestrian safety along rail corridors comes down to three things:
Infrared cameras can be a helpful tool, but their use would be reactive as opposed to preventative. That is, when a camera is activated, any approaching train would be automatically halted. Obviously this averts the collision and saves a life, but it also causes delays and does not systemically address the issue of pedestrian access on tracks. Reactive measures are important, but they need to be complemented by structural, proactive design choices that discourage people from accessing rail tracks without authorization.
Considering the multi hour delays caused by cleaning up bodies on the tracks I think you could end up net positive even with some unnecessary emergency stops. But definitely agreed that making it hard to get onto the tracks in the first place is a good idea.