Last weekend, California governor Gavin Newsom (D) announced that the San Francisco-San Jose heavy commuter rail line had entered the late 19th century (in a good way):
On Thursday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority named its new CEO, Ian Choudri – and today, Choudri joined Governor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco to help celebrate the debut of Caltrain’s new electrified train fleet that will transform rail service in the Bay Area and play a key role in California’s high-speed rail system.
The electrification project and electric trains were supported by more than $1.3 billion in state funding, including more than $700 million from high-speed rail, and will serve as the Bay Area’s connection to California high-speed rail. Caltrain’s electrification and high-speed rail are key projects as part of Governor Newsom’s build more, faster infrastructure agenda.
The Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project converts the Caltrain corridor between San Francisco and San Jose from diesel to an electric service that reduces emissions and enhances capacity. It also equips the corridor to accommodate future California High Speed Rail service. Caltrain estimates that corridor electrification will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 250,000 tons annually, equivalent to taking 55,000 cars off the roads.
The trains look suspiciously like Germany's. (Hmm, I wonder why? Though CalTrain's sets come from Salt Lake City.)
Governor Newsom seems to think that electrified heavy rail somehow puts the Bay Area ahead of the Western World. Streetsblog SF corrects the record:
It was hard not to snicker. As should be obvious to anyone who's spent time in Europe, Asia, or even New Jersey—or anybody familiar with California's rail history—there's nothing innovative or pioneering about Caltrain electrification.
The truth is, running wires over trains so they go faster and don't pollute is just boring, meat-and-potatoes transportation.
There were also electric trains between the Bay Area and Sacramento. There was electric service throughout Marin. And of course there was the famous Red Car electric rail system throughout Los Angeles. But unlike in the Northeast and Europe, nearly all of California's electric rails of old were ripped out and replaced with highways. Today, it's generally accepted that destroying these railroads was a colossal act of civic vandalism.
California should build on what it has accomplished with Caltrain, but state leaders don't need to pretend that it's "pioneering." They also don't need to mess around with unproven technology and distractions such as hydrogen trains and hyperloops. Humanity solved short-to-medium-distance intercity transportation in 1879 when Germany's Ernst Werner von Siemens invented the electric train. Rail electrification using overhead wire is mature, proven technology that just works.
The entire project cost about $1.8 billion, showing that it could cost not much more to electrify the tracks outside my house. (San Francisco to San Jose is about 66 km, while Chicago to Kenosha is 83 km—but Waukegan is 20 km closer.)
Maybe someday we'll electrify Chicago's commuter trains. Of the 785 km Metra operates, the Metra Electric line already has 51 km of fully-electric right of way, and the Rock Island district will start running battery-powered train sets in four years. Meanwhile, I'll keep watching the 40-year-old F40PH locomotives pulling the 65-year-old carriages past my house. (At least we'll get new ones...someday, maybe even this decade.)
Meanwhile, on September 21st, I'll take a 320-km/h train built in the last 10 years. I'm so tired of waiting for my country to get out of the 1950s. CalTrain's electrification is encouraging.