Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
Caltrain is successful because it has two major cities at each end with strong cores, and many walkable towns clustered along the line in between (not to mention a major university). It really is a sort of East Coast development pattern that doesn't usually exist in the West to the same extent. Sounder has Kent, Auburn, Sumner and Puyallup so it's not like there's no town centers, but Caltrain has far more of them and closer-spaced together.
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Caltrain also runs many more trains per day than Sounder.
Caltrain owns most of the railroad right of way, Sounder does not.
There are few, if any, freight customers along the right of way for Caltrain, Sounder has two of the largest freight customers on the US West Coast, both Seattle's and Tacoma's ports, along the right of way with many more freight trains running over the tracks.
The passenger service rolling stock and locomotives may be very similar, but the freight conditions are entirely different. The operating environment is actually very, very different.