California Transit Nerd
@catransitnerd
Bay area native lived in LA for college. I work on Supercomputers with a Poly Sci degree. Rail nerd working on state policy RT=/= endorsement
Fare rates were in most cases regulated by the state governments. Nickel fares were standard until the late 20s or 30s on many systems This is a fictional fare increase chart but follows on average what happened in California across major operators
This is their road design for arterials there’s still 2-3 travel lanes in each direction. Putting in several rows of planted medians to try and hide the car dependency is definitely peak urban form
“Great urbanism” with major parking structures on most blocks, streets that are wider than they should be and a transit plan that’s got as much detail as a child’s marker drawing over an old map
120 service hours a day would be a little short for San Mateo bridge. I’d probably assume ~150 as a baseline For a combined DBx and U I’d probably assume 500 service hours So we need~25m in ops where we’ve got 4 and 25% of that is farebox
Deeply frustrating to see the Dumbarton rail bridge every day knowing there’s no political interest to get passenger rail service running or even improve the existing bus significantly Buses at peak times are running with 30+ people but only come every 30-35 mins
I forgot there’s also “counseling” sessions with management
I think this vision plan needs to go significantly further. Half hourly Sac to San Jose should be the baseline at 110mph with level boarding is an absolute must
Sen Blakespear rightfully wanted an open process which would give other agencies a change to run the org. OCTA and LA metro have failed to deliver projects. Sierra Siding and Raymer to Bernson Double track respectively are on hold to appease local NIMBYs both of which were suppose to be done already
I do find it funny whenever someone says that California Regional and intercity rail JPAs have a history of success. I don't think I'd classify the inability to deliver capital projects and infighting between member agencies as good. We need to get away from JPAs for regional and intercity rail
The new signaling system won’t be online until the early 2030s in stages
I'm use to OCTA saying crazy things but this tops the chart. 'Maintain railroad operations within the existing railroad right of way for the next 30 years. The state will study a potential rail relocation.' We need to get this rail line moved by 2035 not 2060s, time to move rail back to the state
Yes across California agencies have found that NFI hydrogen and BEB units are not reliable
MTC this is not it. Adding 231 new lane miles of HOT lanes isn't going to get us closer to our goal and you admit it maybe an issue but quickly move on We know we aren't on track to hit 20% VMT per capita reduction by 2035 required under SB743 2013
I'm not sure you could pick a site in an urban area that further away from sensitive sites. its ~3k ft away and backed up to a highway already North of the freeway is also a brand new 49MW DC with a 58MW genset farm (The genset farms are slightly oversized for redundancy & max vs continuous rating)
Landscaping using almost as much water as the selective evaporative cooling system to me means more native low water usage plant choices are required.
This timeline is infuriating. We can’t wait 5+ years to have an RFP out for a new fleet and being waiting over a decade for new rolling stock We need major amounts of rolling stock starting to enter service in the early 2030s so we can massive increase intercity rail service by 2035
I’ve long been doubtful of Dreamstar from the questionable renders and lack of railroad background to their lack of any concrete evidence and this another to add to the list. The state needs to start running a sleeper service itself (From a petition around CAHSR from a YT creator)
There’s really no reason to kick them off the line. I think a shortline would be willing to work under more constraints but the peninsula alone isn’t enough to make any interested UP is quite often rolling though Palo Alto station northbound around 5-6pm
This was submitted back in 2024. I expect this extra revenue would allow us to increase and add new rail & bus services while also allowing us to avoid moving to dynamic pricing which is being considered by at least LOSSAN
Happy Pride Month. I picked out a few of Roger Puta photos from across the county to share.
Oh I found a photo from my office that’s close enough. Genset is to the upper right.
It will be wired up as part of CAHSR although the bay area itself will likely pay for it rather than the state to advance the project sooner By 2034 at least bi hourly and 2040 hourly because a direct Santa Cruz to Monterey train took the other slot though Elkhorn Slough. Single track wetlands
Caltrains version (because they have a demo unit they ordered several years ago) is specifically reusing the car design from their EMUs for all 3 of the pax cars
Got to have space to put in that 4 lane stroad There is still this dream of lots of jobs which is a joke. I'd like to see ~4.5k homes in station east And another 7-8k in "the core" easily 12-15k in total not the 4k target
If you’d like to read the waver request from BLW to FRA downloads.regulations.gov/FRA-2020-009...
We need to meet ADA isle requirements which makes 3x2 not an option Siemens was proposing a 3200-3300mm width carboy for brightline west Standard car as proposed: