Will Caltrain and high-speed rail work together?
Last week, at a meeting in Palo Alto City Hall, Mark Simon of Caltrain discussed riders’ concerns with potential incompatibilities between Caltrain and the High Speed Rail project that will take trains from LA to San Francisco up the Caltrain corridor. The presentation didn’t lay compatibility questions to rest, and raised more questions about how the agencies are working together.
The Peninsula Cities Coalition is hosting a meeting this Friday, July 23, in Belmont. This meeting provides an important opportunity for riders to speak up about how critical it is for Caltrain and High Speed Rail to work together to serve riders. Details about the meeting are below.
Compatibility issues
In summary, the three main potential problems for the systems working together are track sharing, platform heights, and signal systems
Track sharing. California High Speed Rail Authority is assuming a separated corridor along the Caltrain right of way, according to the Alternatives Analysis. To visualize this, imagine two HSR tracks and two Caltrain tracks running side by side but there would be limited access from one system to another. This means it would be difficult, if not impossible, for Baby Bullet Caltrain trains to pass local trains or trains on either system to pass disabled trains. With the split corridor, station facilities would also be separate.
Platform heights Another potential difficulty in sharing stations is that Caltrain is planning on using equipment with a different door height than the HSR equipment. This means even if the tracks and stations were shared, the platforms could not accommodate both Caltrain and HSR since the platforms will be at different heights. While this will create rider inconvenience along the peninsula, the Transbay Terminal is affected the most by this discrepancy. Currently, Caltrain terminates at 4th and King streets in San Francisco which is about 1 mile from the job rich financial district. In multiple studies, local governments have concluded that a downtown Transbay Terminal terminus for Caltrain is essential to grow Caltrain ridership. Despite the $4 billion cost of the Transbay Terminal, platform compatibility issues mean half of all Caltrain trains will continue to terminate at 4th and King.
At the meeting, Mark Simon danced around the issue of sharing tracks and stations, saying that he hopes for a phased implementation plan, with Caltrain electrification first, and working out the track sharing later.
Signal systems. The two agencies are planning on using different signal systems. Caltrain is planning to build a custom-developed system, which is still on the drawing board. Simon assured the audience at the meeting that Caltrain’s new system will be built to be compatible with the HSR system, and if there are incompatibilities, it will be easy to retrofit. It’s hard to evaluate the claim, since the new system is still being designed and does not have published specifications, or whether the custom system will be able to be modified cheaply.
The California for High Speed Rail Blog provides an in-depth analysis of the technical compatibility issues. Readers interested in more detail are highly encouraged to read this analysis.
Challenges working together. Simon talked openly about tensions between the agencies so far. Discussing differences in approach, Simon observed that “Caltrain isn’t giving up and owns the right of way – we still have the trump card,” though he expressed hope that new management at the High Speed Rail Authority would be more collaborative. This language indicates that the combination of Caltrain and High Speed Rail is seen as a zero sum game. But if the agencies are competing with each other, riders and taxpayers lose. Riders don’t care who wins the arguments, we want to have a system that works together smoothly.
Solving the compatibility problems
An alternative to the shared but separate corridor currently proposed by the High Speed Rail Authority and a submissive Caltrain is a true shared corridor. Caltrain would order new electrified trains that are compatible with high speed trains so platforms can be shared. The signaling system would be shared. With compatible platform heights, Caltrain could preserve express and local service with cross-platform transfers between the two. Everyone wins in this scenario.
There are many technical details that need to be worked out for interoperability. The California High Speed Rail Blog offers one detailed proposal for how this interoperability might occur. For riders and taxpayers, the important thing is that the two systems work well together, so riders can have schedule choices and convenient trips. And so taxpayer money won’t be wasted ripping up and rebuilding systems that weren’t built to work together the first time.
Californians on the Peninsula will need to live and work with this train system for decades. There is no excuse for territorial squabbling resulting in a system that doesn’t work well for riders.
Tell Caltrain and High Speed Rail to work together
The Peninsula Cities Coalition is hosting a meeting this coming Friday, focusing on interoperability between Caltrain and High Speed Rail. Californians for High Speed Rail will present their analysis of the issues. The meeting is expected to have representatives from Caltrain and the High Speed Rail Authority.
Please come to the Friday meeting and tell Caltrain and HSR that they need to cooperate to make the trains work together for riders.
Friday, July 23, 8:15am
One Twin Pines Lane, Belmont
July 22, 2010 at 11:35 am
Thanks for letting me know about the meeting; I will stop by on my bike commute to work tomorrow and hopefully have time/get a chance to speak.