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Re: NO Caltrain IS Not Dead.....
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-06-2017 - 13:59
These Members of Congress are just "threatening" to hold the Caltrain electrification funds as a political "hostage", to use as a club to beat on the HSR fiasco.
Caltrain is not dead, and this will not kill it. No, electrification is definitely not necessary for the survival of Caltrain. There numerous are fully dieselized corridors like this around the world that easily carry many more commuters, so it is not a capacity issue.
Electrification would be nice, it is the cleanest option. But, electification is extremely costly. And, I have found few of these electrification projects, in my career, that offer a better cost benefit ratio for reductions of unhealthful air pollutants or CO2, when compared to Tier III or Tier IV standards on a cost per ton of air pollutions life cylce cost basis.
If Jerry Brown really wanted to reduce CO2 emissions, we wouuld take carbon fees and offer them as grants to institutions or agencies, or tax credits to businesses and individuals, in order to replace every air conditioning compressor more than 20 years old, those reductions would save user costs and have a cost benefit ratio per ton of CO2 and reductions on a scale that would dwarf the tiny HSR reductions projected.
The planned electrification of Caltrain has been largely a function of the desire for an interoperable HSR/Caltrain corridor, and that has made this project a political target/victim of that connection.
As I have noted on many occasions, the failure to reform and refocus the monies being squandered on the CHSRA fiasco, has erroded public credibility, that has resulted in a political backlash, that now threatens collateral damage to all such projects......
Caltrain is not dead, and this will not kill it. No, electrification is definitely not necessary for the survival of Caltrain. There numerous are fully dieselized corridors like this around the world that easily carry many more commuters, so it is not a capacity issue.
Electrification would be nice, it is the cleanest option. But, electification is extremely costly. And, I have found few of these electrification projects, in my career, that offer a better cost benefit ratio for reductions of unhealthful air pollutants or CO2, when compared to Tier III or Tier IV standards on a cost per ton of air pollutions life cylce cost basis.
If Jerry Brown really wanted to reduce CO2 emissions, we wouuld take carbon fees and offer them as grants to institutions or agencies, or tax credits to businesses and individuals, in order to replace every air conditioning compressor more than 20 years old, those reductions would save user costs and have a cost benefit ratio per ton of CO2 and reductions on a scale that would dwarf the tiny HSR reductions projected.
The planned electrification of Caltrain has been largely a function of the desire for an interoperable HSR/Caltrain corridor, and that has made this project a political target/victim of that connection.
As I have noted on many occasions, the failure to reform and refocus the monies being squandered on the CHSRA fiasco, has erroded public credibility, that has resulted in a political backlash, that now threatens collateral damage to all such projects......
