Caltrain

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Caltrain
Caltrain MP-36 locomotive with double-decker cars
Caltrain MP-36 locomotive with double-decker cars
Stretch of the Caltrain
BSicon .svgBSicon extKBHFa-L.svgBSicon uetBHF-R.svg
0.0 ( Transbay Transit Center )
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→ Tariff zone 1
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0.3 San Francisco → muni
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3.1 22nd Street
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(Oakdale)
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6.6 Paul Avenue
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→ muni
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BSicon .svgBSicon BHF.svgBSicon .svg
8.4 Bayshore
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13.8 Butler Road
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15.0 South San Francisco
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18.7 San Bruno
BSicon .svgBSicon STR + GRZq.svgBSicon utSTR + 1.svg
→ Tariff zone 2
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22.0 Millbrae → beard
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24.5 Broadway
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26.2 Burlingame
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28.8 San Mateo
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30.7 Hayward Park
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32.2 Bay Meadows
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32.7 Hillsdale
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35.2 Belmont
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37.3 San Carlos
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40.9 Redwood City
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→ Tariff zone 3
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(Dumbarton extension)
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(Menlo Park / East Palo Alto)
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(Newark)
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(Fremont-Centerville)
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(Union City)
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44.7 Atherton
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46.5 Menlo Park
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48.4 Palo Alto
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49.6 Stanford
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51.2 California Avenue
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54.9 San Antonio
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56.2 Castro
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58.1 Mountain View
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62.4 Sunnyvale
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→ Tariff zone 4
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65.7 Lawrence
BSicon .svgBSicon BHF-L.svgBSicon BHF-R.svg
71.3 Santa Clara → amtrak / ace
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73.5 College park → Bellarmine
BSicon uSTR + l.svgBSicon mKRZt.svgBSicon mKRZt.svg
VTA Light Rail
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75.5 San Jose → amtrak / ace
BSicon uSTR + l.svgBSicon mKRZo.svgBSicon mKRZo.svg
VTA Light Rail
BSicon uBHF-L.svgBSicon BHF-R.svgBSicon STR.svg
79.0 Tamien
BSicon .svgBSicon STR + GRZq.svgBSicon STR2.svg
→ Tariff zone 5
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84.3 Capitol
BSicon .svgBSicon STR2.svgBSicon STRc3.svg
→ single track section
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89.6 Blossom Hill
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→ Tariff zone 6
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108.6 Morgan Hill
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114.6 San Martin
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124.6 Gilroy

Caltrain is a mass transit system in the US state of California . It serves the counties of San Francisco , San Mateo , and Santa Clara and runs from San Francisco via San José to partly to Gilroy . The route is generally served about hourly, on weekdays up to 96 trains run daily. This transports 12 million passengers annually. On the San Francisco peninsula it is used in addition to the little developed BART S-Bahn .

history

The first line was opened in 1851 by the San Francisco and San José Railroad and ran from San Francisco through what is now Silicon Valley to San José. In 1864 here was one of the first local trains (commuter trains) introduced in the US.

In 1870 the route was bought by Southern Pacific . In 1904, the northern section was double-tracked, partly relocated to Bayshore Boulevard and expanded with tunnels.

After 1945 the number of passengers declined due to the increasing use of automobiles, until the operator then declared in 1977 that he wanted to stop the loss-making railway operations.

The state-owned Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) then took over the railway line in 1980 and commissioned Southern Pacific to operate it until new vehicles were purchased in 1985. The stations were continuously renewed and numerous shuttle buses were installed. The name CalTrain was also created at this time .

After a traffic study on the future of the system, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board (PCJPB) was founded in 1987 , which in 1991 bought the double-track line from San Francisco to San Jose from the Southern Pacific. The semi-state long-distance transport company Amtrak was then commissioned with the operation .

In 1992 the PCJPB extended the route beyond San Jose to Gilroy, even if this section is mainly only used on weekdays. At Tamien Station in San Jose there is also an easier transition to the VTA Light Rail Service.

1995 began to make the stations and vehicles barrier-free. A little later, more bicycle parking spaces were added to the trains to meet the needs of commuters in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

In 1997 the round logo was introduced and the name changed to the simpler Caltrain.

In 1998 the 4th & King Street terminus was connected via an extension of the Muni tram , which offers a direct route to downtown San Francisco.

In 1999 the VTA Stadtbahn was extended to the Mountain View station, where it offered a direct transfer to the trains to companies in Silicon Valley .

In 2003, the BART route was extended to Milbrae, offering a direct transfer to the S-Bahn to both San Francisco International Airport and the city center with the route under Market Street .

In 2004, the experimental Caltrain Express was converted into a permanent facility for the Baby Bullet express trains. These trains pass through a few stations - in Bayshore and Lawrance the slower lines are being overtaken, in Brisbane and Sunnyvale new overtaking tracks have been created. The service covers the route in less than an hour instead of the previous hour and a half. Although very successful, however, had extended for some commuters to work, so some 2,005 pairs of trains have been introduced with a modified station grid, as Pattern B are designated.

In 2008 the Caltrain reached its highest level of 98 trains a day, which were scaled back as a result of the financial crisis. In 2010 it was decided to stop around half of the train service at lunchtime, so that at times only 86 trains were running. The budget crisis was overcome in the course of 2011 through several increases in fares.

Today the Caltrain is one of the most important means of local transport around the Bay of San Francisco . For commuters, 4–6 pairs of trains run every hour, mostly as express lines (limited service or baby bullet). During the off-peak times, there is an hourly train that stops at all stations.

In San José there is a transition to the Amtrak Capitol Service and the Altamont Corridor Express to Stockton . You can also change to the VTA light rail at the San José Diridon station , as well as at the Mountain View and Tamien stations (on weekdays).

future

electrification

Due to the high train frequency, electrification of the route is planned by 2020 (originally 2015). From 2029 Template: future / in 5 years(originally 2026), trains from the new California High-Speed ​​Rail lines from Fresno via Gilroy and San Jose to San Francisco will also be able to use the electrified route .

The electrification in the "Peninsula Corridor Electification Project" was decided in 2015. It covers the section from San Francisco to two miles (three kilometers) behind Tamien, which is owned by the state company (the remainder of the route to Gilroy is owned by Union Pacific Railroad). Subsequently, around 75% of the traffic will be served by electric multiple units from 2021, the remaining diesel-electric trains will be replaced at the end of their service life. Due to the greater acceleration of the electric trains, consideration is being given to building additional stations.

In July 2016, the financing of the electrification was approved and the order for electric multiple units was confirmed. Based on the electric Stadler Kiss double-decker trains, Stadler will produce a modified version with four doors on each side for the Caltrain. 16 six-car trains (96 cars) valued at $ 551 million were ordered, with an option for an additional 96 cars valued at $ 385 million. The trains are designed for operation under 25 kV / 60 Hz overhead contact lines and will initially be operated at speeds of up to 127 km / h - in later mixed traffic with the California High-Speed ​​Rail trains, they will also run at up to 177 km / h. Operations are expected to begin in late 2020 and high-speed operations in 2026–2029. With electrification it is expected that travel times will decrease by 15% and the subsidy requirements of the system can be halved.

The previously agreed equipping of the corridor with a new train control system, together with the high-speed multiple units, will result in an increase in capacity - in previous years the number of passengers had more than doubled. The costs of electrification including train control result in a volume of 2 billion US dollars for this part of the "CalMod" modernization program.

In May 2017, federal funds of $ 647 million were released. In June, the financial framework for Caltrain was decided, which starts on July 1st of each year and now includes electrification. At the end of July 2017, the symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for electrification took place at the Milbrae station in the middle of the corridor.

Transbay Transit Center

The old Transbay Terminal was damaged in an earthquake in 1989. Back then, it served as a transfer point to the trams and bus routes in San Francisco behind the Bay Bridge . This function is to be taken over by the Transbay Transit Center , which is currently being built [out of date] offset by one block . In contrast to the old terminal, a direct connection to the Caltrain is also provided.

From today's terminus 4th Street & King, the train turns in a wide arc and reaches the interchange on 2nd Street / Mission Street, just one block south of Market Street , the business center of San Francisco. Many facilities, especially the job center, can then be reached on foot from the Caltrain.

The DTX extension (Caltrain Downtown Extension) was commissioned in Proposition H in 1999 by the vote of the voters, but was repeatedly postponed by the authorities without a time. Instead of a tunnel that turns at today's train station, the authorities are also considering an alternative route that will drive through the Mission Bay district beforehand, i.e. ultimately a straight connection.

Dumbarton Extension

The Dumbarton Bridge is the southernmost of the bridges over the San Francisco Bay . In addition to the road bridge, there was also a railway bridge, which was used by the Southern Pacific until 1982, and was partially destroyed by a fire in 1998. The construction of the sideline was ultimately postponed due to high costs, in order to first pay for the extension of the BART route beyond Fremont towards San Jose.

Extension of Monterey

Plans are in place to extend the lines beyond Gilroy to open up Monterey County . Salinas is then reached via stations in Pajaro and Castroville , where there is already an Amtrak station that is served by the Coast Starlight . However, there are other options for connecting Salinas, such as the Del Monte Express or an extension of the Capitol Corridor .

Tariff structure

With the sometimes large distance between stations, the route is similar to a regional express / regional train and was operated in a similar way for a long time. Due to the high occupancy rate with commuters, however, the tariff structure was changed similarly to a S-Bahn, so that the route is divided into six zones. You pay for the number of zones used and you also know day tickets, 8-person block tickets and monthly tickets.

As of 2014, you were paying from one zone $ 3.25 to six zones $ 13.25 for a single ticket that is valid for four hours. In addition to single tickets, there are only day tickets in paper form; all other types of tickets are billed using the electronic clipper card . These are also used to automatically charge discounted connecting tickets, in particular for the bus routes that feed them, so that commuters use them almost exclusively.

The Baby Bullets do not cost an express surcharge and are simply part of the zone structure - they have at least one stop in each zone. Although formally only an extension of the limited service lines, which are more often used by commuters, the Baby Bullet has developed a high symbolic power for the entire local transport system - better-off employees commute from their houses a little further away with this "small high-speed train" in the economic centers of the region.

Due to the tariffs, the baby bullets and the consistent introduction of other local means of transport, the number of passengers has generally increased. The actual values ​​depend heavily on the economic indicators, especially in Silicon Valley, so that the dot-com bubble and the financial crisis led to significant drops with a slight delay - in some years the numbers averaged 25,000 passengers per day, but in 2015 they reached an average of 58,000 passengers per day Day.

vehicles

Caltrain uses a diverse fleet of vehicles. In addition to locomotives from EMD , including types F40 , F59 and type MP36PH-3C from Motive Power, there are BiLevel Coach double-decker cars from Bombardier and Gallery double-decker cars from Kinki Sharyo . The track width is 1435 mm.

Interior view of the bicycle compartment

Since 2011, all trains have at least two bicycle compartments - they can be recognized from the outside by a yellow sign. Four bicycles can be secured to each adjustment bracket by means of a rubber cord. Folded folding bikes are considered luggage and can be carried anywhere without any restrictions.

Manufacturer model Locomotive number commitment Note image
EMD F40PH-2 902, 903, 907, 910, 914 1985 – current Order of Caltrans ; Modernized by Alstom in 1999 . Caltrain JPBX 910 at Millbrae Station.JPG
EMD F40PH-2CAT 900, 901, 904-906, 908, 909, 911-913, 915-919 1985 – current Originally ordered from Caltrans as F40PH-2s; the last 918/919 were delivered in 1987; Modernized by Alstom in 1999. Three EMD F40PH-2CATs at the San Francisco station.
MPI F40PH-2C 920-922 1998 – current No. 920 is an Operation Lifesaver platoon with educational material Caltrain JPBX 922 at Santa Clara Station.JPG
MPI MP36PH-3C 923-928 2003 – current Almost exclusively as a "Baby Bullet" on duty. Caltrain JPBX 927 at Palo Alto station.JPG
EMD GP9 500, 501 2000-2013 Work trains were sold
EMD MP15DC 503, 504 2003 – current Work trains. EMD MP15DC # 503.

future

The electric double-decker trains are manufactured in the USA based on the modules of the Stadler Kiss series ( Buy America Program ). Initially 16 trains with six cars each will be delivered, a total of 96 cars. There is an option for a further 96 cars, which will expand the fleet to 24 trains with eight cars each. The cars are standard-gauge and run under 25 kV 60 Hz overhead lines.

The middle cars each have two doors. The entry heights are 22 inches below and 50½ inches above (about 560 mm below and 1280 mm above). Upon delivery, the two upper doors above the bogies are sealed and there are seats behind them. When the high-floor trains of high-speed traffic reach the transport corridor (probably in 2029), the platforms will be gradually rebuilt. For this purpose, the high-floor doors are then made accessible, which temporarily reduces the number of seats by 10%. After completion of the work, the doors to the low entry are sealed and additional seats can be installed again.

In the projected form, the wagons should be 3000 mm wide and 4840 mm high, resulting in a six-part train length of 157.1 m. After full delivery, the eight-part wagons are around 200 m long, which is the usual length of regional platforms in California. With an acceleration of 1.0 m / s² they reach up to 177 km / h (110 mph).

depot

The repair shop is located north of the San Jose Diridon station . ( 37 ° 20 '22 "  N , 121 ° 54' 35"  W Coordinates: 37 ° 20 '22 "  N , 121 ° 54' 35"  W ). The current workshop was built in 2004 and officially started operations on September 29, 2007.

There are dead ends for turning, parking and deploying trains at the end points - in San Francisco 22 & King (ten tracks in the terminus plus four dead ends), in Gilroy (one dead end) and at Tamien (four dead ends) in San Jose, where many trains start or end on weekdays.

Numbering scheme

Number display on the various Caltrain locomotives

The locomotives / control cars in front of the respective line trains have a number on the front. The older series show a two-digit train number - these count up from one at the start of the day. The odd numbers lead north towards San Francisco, the even numbers south. Each train has a unique number under which the times and stations can be found in the timetable.

In the timetable, the train number is supplemented by a preceding third number, which indicates the line type. The express lines are often served with the modern locomotives, which also display this three-digit number directly. The line type refers to the following scheme of the stops.

  • 1 = on weekdays, local train, stops at all stations
  • 2 = on weekdays, limit service trains, runs through some stations
  • 3 = on weekdays, Baby Bullet, only stops at 5 stations along the route
  • 4 = weekends, local train, stops at all stations
  • 8 = weekends, Baby Bullet, only stops at a few stations.

Note: The locomotive numbers are also three-digit, but always start with a 9 (work trains with a 5). These vehicle numbers in the format 9xx should not be confused with the numbering scheme of the lines. Especially with the older locomotives, the locomotive numbers are larger than the train number that is of interest to the passenger.

Example: The 366 shown is a baby bullet that starts at 4:30 p.m. in San Francisco and ends after an hour in San Jose Diridon / Tamien. The 274 is the train that starts as a local train and is the last train of the day to go through to Gilroy - it starts at half past five in San Francisco and arrives at Gilroy shortly before eight in the evening. The 198 is then the last train of the day at midnight, which ends in San Jose Diridon. At half past four in the morning, the 101 starts again northwards towards San Francisco (as of the 2015 timetable).

Train destination displays at the stations often do not exist . Their structure is continuously projected as "Visual Message Signs", which are currently available at half of the stations. As a replacement, however , the electronic passenger information system was made available online - under "caltrain.com - Stations" the information is available for each station in a familiar form: the next three trains are shown for each direction, for each train with train number, line type and countdown to Departure of the train. The trains under "Northbound" all end in San Francisco, in the opposite direction "Southbound" the terminus depends on the line type. Each station has its own subpage with the dynamic information so that commuters can set them as favorites in the browser of a smartphone - since 2012 there has been an optimized variant under "Real-time Station List".

Individual evidence

  1. System Maintenance . Caltrain. Retrieved December 2015: "Performing the necessary maintenance on the 146-year old rail line allows Caltrain to serve its 12 million annual riders."
  2. ^ A b Caltrain Modernization . Caltrain. Accessed December 2015.
  3. caltrain.com
  4. Stadler delivers double-decker multiple units to the USA for the first time , accessed on October 5, 2016.
  5. Caltrain approves electrification and EMU contracts . International Railway Journal. July 8, 2016.
  6. CalMod - Electrification and the Future of Caltrain . Caltrain. 11th of February 2014.
  7. Caltrain electrification funding confirmed . Railway Gazette. 23 May 2017.
  8. ^ Work begins to electrify Caltrain . Railway Gazette. July 24, 2017.
  9. ^ Caltrain Electrification Groundbreaking . SF Streetsblog. July 21, 2017.
  10. Activists prod Mayor Lee over Caltrain extension . Bay City News. June 25, 2015.
  11. Fare Chart . Caltrain. Accessed December 2015.
  12. ^ Ridership . Caltrain. Accessed December 2015.
  13. ^ Bicycle General Info . Caltrain. Accessed December 2015.
  14. a b c http://caltrain-hsr.blogspot.de/2016/09/emu-brochure.html
  15. a b c d e http://www.tillier.net/stuff/caltrain/stadler_caltrain_emu_brochure.pdf
  16. Weekday Timetable . Caltrain. Accessed December 2015.
  17. ^ Caltrain to expand visual message system . February 27, 2003 .: "The visual messaging system used by the San Francisco Bay Area commuter rail line Caltrain will soon be expanded to 10 more train stations, bringing the communications capability to half of Caltrain's 34 stations that stretch between Gilroy and San Francisco. "
  18. caltrain.com
  19. caltrain.com

Hints:

  1. Bullet Train is the slang term for high-speed trains - the diminutive form as Baby Bullet indicates that it actually isn't. The top speed of the trains of 130 km / h is even on par with the regional lines on the route, but owing to the overtaking maneuvers, it is significantly faster over long distances.

Web links

Commons : Caltrain  - collection of images, videos and audio files