Re: UP agrees to back out of Caltrain territory
Author: synonymouse
Date: 01-06-2017 - 16:17
The problem with freight on Caltrain lines is that PBCAHSR must then conform to FRA-AAR heavy rules too. These rules, especially after "incidents" tend towards boiler plate and heavier, despite the romance with crumple zones. Ergo Acelas.
The solution to that problem would have been the BART approach, complete segregation. SFO, Dumbarton, Altamont, I-5 via Tejon and a brand new mostly tunnel entree into LAUS. Expensive civil works but then considerably shorter than via the Palmdale-Tehachapi detour. Very fast and permitting existing European HSR standards.
As it is, since PB insists on blindly paralleling the antediluvian ex-SP Loop route over the Tehachapis way to the east they might as well buildit out to 2% and meandering so as to be able to accommodate freight and replace the Loop line. This backwoods alignment is too indirect and extended to be competitive with the other modes and given the llimited passenger traffic over it they will be easily able to fit in freights. Otherwise the cost/benefit ratio is atrocious.