 |
Re: Coast Upgrades to First World Standards might cost a couple of "SOFI's" , or about $4 billion US...
Author: BOB2
Date: 07-31-2024 - 11:49
FUD Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm pretty sure BOB2 (the real one) has discussed
> night trains in California several times. Likewise
> adding frequencies on the whole Coast route, not
> just the north and south ends. Main issue, as
> always, is money - to start up and to run. The
> state would have to pay for it, like it does the
> Cap Corridor (extension to Salinas is on the books
> though not scheduled already), surfliner, and San
> Joaquins. The state (HSR notwithstanding) is not
> in the business of funding poorly-used trains,
> though, and the night trains in general, that have
> been tried (remember the MedFly?), have not been
> heavily used. In a time when there are hourly or
> better flights between most of the major northern
> & southern CA airports, taking an hour, for much
> of the day and evening, there's only a limited
> market for "night trains." Would be interesting
> (and so far not easy to tease out of published
> data) to see what the ridership is on the "night
> buses" run by Cal Amtrak connecting the last San
> Joaquin with LA & SD, and connecting Cap Corridor
> and Surfliner.
It's a no brainer to do the Coastline, if you look at the congestion levels on 101, the trip distributions, and the costs of a maybe 20% better than "average" (peak congested and off-peak daytime) auto time competitive average speed, then yeah this looked good when I was taking cab rides on Danish DMU's with Cal Abernathy (AKA "Linc"). That was back when I was busy taking politicians on a tour of the possible options if we would buy the Coastline from Phil Anschutz for a measly $400 million in like friggin' 1992 (I've lost track???, I got to do about sex or seven of these "demo" runs back then).
Nothing has really changed, except, of course that as predicted the population, and resultant congestion and delay has gotten much worse in that corridor.
And, also, of course, that instead of $400 million to Phil Anschutz, the UP will want at least a "SOFI" or maybe even "two" (one SOFI being the equivalent of $2 billion US) for the Coastline.
As FUD rightly notes, it does take money. But, as importantly, and California's real big problem right now, is that it aso takes a political process and leadership that is not dedicated to slopping political troughs like we have seen most recently with the SOFI "cesspool"...
After years of putting up with the kind of poor planning and waste of billions of dollars in excessive bloated gold-plated design of the CAHSRA fiasco, and then the LAX people mover, we have new records of waste and gold plating for political managers and the politicians they serve.
Which is another reason we can't have "nice things" like a first world hourly express/hourly local- blended multicity corridor rail passenger service on the Coastline, with service times of 8 hours easily obtainable with the proper design (using cost/benefit" tested and based operational investment optimization and value engineering).
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm pretty sure BOB2 (the real one) has discussed
> night trains in California several times. Likewise
> adding frequencies on the whole Coast route, not
> just the north and south ends. Main issue, as
> always, is money - to start up and to run. The
> state would have to pay for it, like it does the
> Cap Corridor (extension to Salinas is on the books
> though not scheduled already), surfliner, and San
> Joaquins. The state (HSR notwithstanding) is not
> in the business of funding poorly-used trains,
> though, and the night trains in general, that have
> been tried (remember the MedFly?), have not been
> heavily used. In a time when there are hourly or
> better flights between most of the major northern
> & southern CA airports, taking an hour, for much
> of the day and evening, there's only a limited
> market for "night trains." Would be interesting
> (and so far not easy to tease out of published
> data) to see what the ridership is on the "night
> buses" run by Cal Amtrak connecting the last San
> Joaquin with LA & SD, and connecting Cap Corridor
> and Surfliner.
It's a no brainer to do the Coastline, if you look at the congestion levels on 101, the trip distributions, and the costs of a maybe 20% better than "average" (peak congested and off-peak daytime) auto time competitive average speed, then yeah this looked good when I was taking cab rides on Danish DMU's with Cal Abernathy (AKA "Linc"). That was back when I was busy taking politicians on a tour of the possible options if we would buy the Coastline from Phil Anschutz for a measly $400 million in like friggin' 1992 (I've lost track???, I got to do about sex or seven of these "demo" runs back then).
Nothing has really changed, except, of course that as predicted the population, and resultant congestion and delay has gotten much worse in that corridor.
And, also, of course, that instead of $400 million to Phil Anschutz, the UP will want at least a "SOFI" or maybe even "two" (one SOFI being the equivalent of $2 billion US) for the Coastline.
As FUD rightly notes, it does take money. But, as importantly, and California's real big problem right now, is that it aso takes a political process and leadership that is not dedicated to slopping political troughs like we have seen most recently with the SOFI "cesspool"...
After years of putting up with the kind of poor planning and waste of billions of dollars in excessive bloated gold-plated design of the CAHSRA fiasco, and then the LAX people mover, we have new records of waste and gold plating for political managers and the politicians they serve.
Which is another reason we can't have "nice things" like a first world hourly express/hourly local- blended multicity corridor rail passenger service on the Coastline, with service times of 8 hours easily obtainable with the proper design (using cost/benefit" tested and based operational investment optimization and value engineering).
