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Old Posted Mar 2, 2021, 1:40 PM
jmecklenborg jmecklenborg is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian View Post
The present plan as I understand it is to run both CalTrain and HSR on the existing (but electrified) double tracking of the Peninsula rail corridor but early in the planning CA HSR planned to install its own tracks so there seems to be enough room in the right of way to have BART tracks parallel to the double tracking for CalTrain/HSR.
This is not correct. The original circa-2008 hope was to expand the existing two-track conventional diesel railroad to four tracks with overhead electric, with two outside tracks dedicated to HSR and two inside tracks dedicated to Caltrains. Instead, three tracks are now planned in a "blended" service that will be pretty much the same as what four tracks can do except for during maintenance periods. All trains will stop at SFO in order to enable cuing into the Transbay Terminal, which will be accessed by a 3-track tunnel.

The reason why the capacity for both the 3-track and 4-track peninsula configurations is almost the same is because the whole thing's capacity is limited by the 6 platforms at the Transbay Terminal. By default, the HSR trains will terminate their runs in this facility, and so each will need a 30-minute turnaround time for cleaning. Meanwhile, the Caltrains commuter trains will "terminate" in San Jose or Gilroy, and so cleaning will happen there, where there is plenty of room.

When a new Transbay Tube is built, the Transbay Terminal will become a thru station, meaning the turnaround cleaning of HSR trains will happen somewhere in the East Bay, where there will be much more space. This means that HSR trains will idle at the Transbay Terminal for 5 minutes instead of 30. This will profoundly improve the capacity of the entire system.

Also, it should be pointed out that Caltrains will operate at 110mph, which is somewhat faster than BART, and that some Caltrains runs will be express or limited stop, meaning even with a transfer (or two) the planned setup will be faster than any imaginable BART setup, especially if one's destination is near the Transbay Terminal.

Last edited by jmecklenborg; Mar 2, 2021 at 3:48 PM.
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