Caltrain Modernization Program: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:13, 30 March 2017

Revision as of 18:31, 30 March 2017

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The '''Caltrain Modernization Program''' (CalMod) is a $1.9 billion project which will add a [[Positive train control|Positive Train Control]] system, [[Railway electrification system|electrify the main line]] for [[Caltrain]], a [[commuter railroad]] serving cities in the [[San Francisco Peninsula]] and [[Silicon Valley]], and transition from its current [[diesel-electric locomotive]] powered trains to [[electric multiple unit]]s (EMU).

CalMod is divided into two sub-projects: the '''Communications Based Overlay Signal System''' Postive Train Control system (CBOSS/PTC) and the '''Peninsula Corridor Electrification Project''' (PCEP). CBOSS is designed to fulfill federal safety mandates for passenger rail and is part of the [[Federal Railroad Administration]] (FRA) waiver to use EMUs on tracks shared with freight traffic. PCEP will allow Caltrain to improve service times via faster acceleration and increasedshorter [[headway]]s, reduce air pollution and noise, and facilitate a future [[Downtown Extension (Caltrain)|underground extension]] (DTX) into [[Financial District, San Francisco|downtown San Francisco]]'s [[Transbay Transit Center]] because the current diesel trains cannot serve underground stations. EMU procurement is part of PCEP.

When complete, CalMod will electrify {{convert|49|mi|km}} of tracks between [[San Francisco 4th and King Street Station|4th and King station]] and [[Tamien Station]]. Funding for the project comes from various federal, state, and local sources, including from the [[California High-Speed Rail|California High-Speed Rail Authority]], which plans to share Caltrain's tracks in the future. Construction contracts for electrification were awarded on July 2016 and [[groundbreaking]] was expected to occur in March 2017, but was delayed when the United States Secretary of Transportation [[Elaine Chao]] indefinitely deferred federal funding just before construction was about to begin. Also in early 2017, Caltrain removed the contractor responsible for implementing CBOSS for failure to perform on-budget and on-schedule. Caltrain plans to complete the project by 2020, after which it plans to use double-decker [[electric multiple unit]] [[Stadler Rail]] trainsets on the electrified route. Some of the diesel locomotives will be retained for service south of Tamien and, potentially, on the [[Dumbarton Rail Corridor]].