Arrow (SPNV)

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From the beginning of 2022, rail passenger transport (SPNV) is to be offered under the name Arrow on the approximately 15 km long San Bernardino – Redlands line in California . The contracting authority and owner of the infrastructure is the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) of San Bernardino County , operator is Metrolink .

prehistory

Redlands was connected to the railway network from 1888 by a line built from San Bernardino by the California Central Railway Company , a subsidiary of Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). By 1892 this was expanded to the Redlands Loop (or Redland Loop ) by laying the tracks in a loop back to San Bernardino. The southern part of the loop , opened in 1888, connected San Bernardino and Redlands directly through the outskirts of Loma Linda , while the northern part of the loop back to Highland Jct in north San Bernardino via Mentone , Highland , Patton and Del Rosa in the following years was built. In 1906 AT&SF took over the California Central Railway.

Also in 1888, the East San Bernardino Railroad was founded, which built a 16 km long narrow-gauge railway with a gauge of 914 mm between San Bernardino and Redlands. The operating company was under the control of the Southern Pacific Company (SP) from 1892 and was renamed the San Bernardino & Redlands Railroad Company. However, operations ended at the end of July 1915. For freight traffic, the SP had built a branch line from Loma Linda to Redlands in the 1890s, which was operated until the 1980s. From 1905 on, the Pacific Electric Railway also operated a railway line between San Bernardino and Redlands, which ran north of what is now Interstate 10 . Passenger traffic ended there in 1937, but the route was operated in freight traffic until the early 1980s.

Passenger traffic on the Redlands Loop ceased in 1938. On December 12, 1955, the AT&SF was approved the closure of the 6.2 km long section of Highland Jct and Del Rosa, which was completed in early 1956. In 1967 the loop was shortened by another 2.6 km from Del Rosa to Patton after approval the previous year. In 1980 and 1986, the freight traffic between Patton and Redlands gradually ended, whereupon the tracks on this section were partially dismantled in the following years. On the southern part of the loop in 2020 there were tracks from San Bernardino to Judson Street in the east of Redlands, which will be used for freight traffic for the first few kilometers by the AT&S successor BNSF Railway .

Reactivation for the local rail transport

The resumption of rail passenger transport (SPNV) between San Bernardino and Redlands has been discussed since the late 1980s. The California Rail Passenger Development Plan of 1991 mentioned a possible expansion of the Metrolink network to Redlands, which was not yet in operation at the time .

At the beginning of the 21st century, political decisions were made that enabled the neighboring communities , acting as San Bernardino Associated Governments (SANBAG), to acquire the BNSF route infrastructure between San Bernardino and Redlands. In autumn 2011, SANBAG placed an order for the planning and environmental impact assessment of the necessary expansion measures. The total costs for the first implementation phase with three intermediate stops were then estimated at $ 150 million, in 2016 at $ 265.3 million and in 2020 including vehicle procurement costs at $ 359.7 million.

The contract to expand the infrastructure was awarded in spring 2019 by the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA), which emerged from SANBAG in 2017, to the Flatiron Construction group , which began work in summer 2019. The superstructure will be renewed on the entire section of the route that will be used by local rail transport . The line remains largely single-track, but a 3.2 km long double-track encounter section is created about halfway between San Bernardino and Redlands. In addition, four new stations will be built and the San Bernadino Transit Center station will be expanded by a platform, five bridges will be built and 24 level crossings will be technically secured.

After several postponements, the beginning of 2022 was named as the start of operations. From this point onwards, hourly connections are planned every day between around 5 a.m. and 10 p.m., which should be compressed to half-hourly intervals on weekdays during rush hour.

After the project was given the working title Redlands Passenger Rail Project for several years , the name Arrow has been used since November 2016 .

Omnitrans , the public transport operator of the San Bernardino County , was originally supposed to take over the management. In October 2019, however, the SBCTA decided to hire the Southern California Railroad Administration and its subsidiary Metrolink instead .

vehicles

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) of San Bernardino County ordered three Stadler Flirt diesel multiple units in early 2018 . In November 2019, Stadler Rail announced the acquisition of a hydrogen-powered train .

Web links

Commons : Category: Arrow (commuter rail)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Larry E. Burgess, Nathan D. Gonzales: Redlands . Arcadia Publishing, 2004, ISBN 978-0-7385-2883-0 , pp. 63 (English).
  2. ^ Greg Harrison: The Redlands Loop. In: abandonedrails.com. Accessed August 2, 2020 .
  3. Alvin A. Fickewirth: California Railroads: An Encyclopedia of Cable Car, Common Carrier, Horsecar, Industrial Interurban, Logging, Monorail, Motor Road, Shortlines, Streetcar, Switching, and Terminal Railroads in California (1851-1992) . 1992, ISBN 978-0-87095-106-0 , pp. 39 (English).
  4. ^ Donald B. Robertson: Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: California . 1986, ISBN 978-0-87004-385-7 , pp. 201; 243 (English).
  5. James E. Lancaster and Bill Messecar: Historic Packing Houses and Other Industrial Structures in Southern California - Virtual Tour of Redlands, CA, San Bernardino County. In: abandonedrails.com. Retrieved August 3, 2020 .
  6. ^ Identification and Evaluation of Historic Properties: Clean Water Factory Project, City of San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California. (PDF) San Bernardino Municipal Water Department, March 2016, p. 16 , accessed on August 3, 2020 .
  7. ^ Surface Transportation Board (ed.): STB-Docket 19173 . December 12, 1955 (English): “... permission to abandon and remove a portion of its line of railroad known as the Redland Loop, in San Bernardino County, California, 3.9 miles, between its connection with the applicant's main line at Highland Junction and the Station of Del Rosa ”
  8. ^ Surface Transportation Board (ed.): STB-Docket 24317 . December 9, 1966 (English): “... permission to abandon ... approx. 1.61 mi. from the station at Patton to the end of the track at the Station of Del Rosa ”
  9. California Department of Transportation (Ed.): California Rail Passenger Development Plan . 1991, p. XIII (English): “Future extensions of this system [Metrolink] may extend service from Riverside to Hemet and from San Bernardino to Redlands”
  10. Redlands Passenger Rail Project contract awarded. In: Railway Gazette International . November 2, 2011, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  11. ^ California transport grants announced. In: Railway Gazette International . August 17, 2016, accessed on August 4, 2020 .
  12. a b c d Redlands Passenger Rail Project (Arrow) - Fact Sheet. (PDF; 1.1 MB) San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA), 2020, accessed August 18, 2020 .
  13. ^ Construction Contract Awarded for Redlands Passenger Rail Project. San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA), April 5, 2019, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  14. Sandra Emerson: Redlands passenger rail service to be called Arrow. In: Redlands Daily Facts. November 16, 2016, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  15. ^ Redlands Passenger Rail Project (Arrow). San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, 2020, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  16. Steve Scauzillo: $ 520 million deficit has Omnitrans eyeing layoffs and bus-line reductions, but is it enough? San Bernardino Sun , October 21, 2019, accessed August 18, 2020 : “The county agency's Transit Committee voted to replace Omnitrans as the operator of the future Arrow passenger rail service between San Bernardino and Redlands with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, the parent of Metrolink "
  17. DMUs ordered for California's Arrow commuter service. In: Railway Gazette International . January 22, 2018, accessed August 4, 2020 .
  18. International Railway Journal of November 14, 2019
  19. Green-Tech for the USA: Stadler wins first contract for a hydrogen-powered train. Stadler Rail , November 14, 2019, accessed on August 2, 2020 .