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California’s new electric train makes for a shockingly better trip—we tried it
(www.fastcompany.com)
this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2024
165 points (99.4% liked)
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I was in SF this past week and took Caltrain down to Redwood City and back. I rode one of the express Baby Bullets, which is as fast as the diesel-electrics go. (The electric trains were sitting there at 4th and King, mocking me.) Let me tell you, I do not know how they think they can run HSR on this track in the state that it's in. This is far and away the bumpiest ride I've ever had on Caltrain, and I used to commute on it twice a day for two years. I'm actually concerned about the state of the track. It's great that they've run the wire, but I anticipate strict speed limits if they ever get the high speed rolling stock up from LA.
Dealing with bump and sway is mostly a matter of running a ballast cleaner/tamper/regulator along the track more regularly. Maybe replacing some rail. Unless the actual sub-foundation is bad; that gets really disruptive.
Much cheaper than trying to ease curves, gradients, structure clearance, or provide grade separation.
Right. But Caltrain has had multiple full shutdowns over the last couple of years during the catenary installation. If they aren't able to maintain the tracks with that much shutdown time it's worrying.