North9ON wrote:a sparsely populated region in Canada with conventional diesel locomotives and unilevel passenger coaches.
Therein lies the entire problem.
The U.S. FRA is quite strict with the crashworthiness regulation that has all but eliminated MU use in the United States. European models are virtually off the table, unless the operator is able to obtain a waiver and demonstrate to the FRA that there is positive separation of conventional rail vehicles and MU vehicles that don't comply with 49CFR229. This approach is employed by the
New Jersey Transit RiverLine (using a vehicle manufactured by
Stadler) and the
North County Transit District Sprinter (north of San Diego, CA, using a
Siemens Desiro DMU).
TriMet's WES service (near Portland, Oregon) uses
Colorado Railcar DMUs which do comply with Part 229 as does the
South Florida Regional Transportation Agency's Tri-Rail service, however the vehicles are no longer in production. The
Trinity Railway Express (Dallas-Fort Worth, TX) uses
rebuilt Budd RDCs which are grandfathered into legislation, but could not be employed in a new system.
Canada - on the other hand - is a bit more relaxed. While you don't see as many operations you are able to see a few RDC operators as well as the
OCTranspo (Ottawa, Ontario) O-Train using
Bombardier Talent (equivalent to Deutsche Bahn class 643) DMUs. The O-Train also employs single-man operation - something that is not possible in the U.S.
That's just the vehicle choice...then you must have a supporting railroad and stations to serve it. Again, in the U.S. the rules are more strict - stations must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, for example. And using just any old railroad track won't cut it, the track must be reconstructed to strict tolerances. I'm most familiar with the WES route - this was an existing railroad that could easily meet or exceed FRA Class 2 track standards, and likely meet Class 3. However in the end the entire railroad was rebuilt from the sub-grade up with a new signaling system (including automatic train control). What was supposed to be a cost-effective "starter" DMU system turned out to become a $170 million project and while hasn't been called a "failure", is also not being called a "success" either and has generally been an embarassment for TriMet (who is hoping to redeem itself by opening a new light rail line in less than twelve hours).
I want to say that
VIA Rail, along with the
Alaska Railroad, have some good practices for using inexpensive equipment and providing a necessary service. The service that CN inherited from BC Rail, the
Lillooet Shuttle (which replaced a long-distance RDC train from Vancouver) is also another example of using low-cost vehicles (the vehicles were built by a man in California who wanted to use it as a "super" speeder on a nearby branchline, but the railroad which gave him permission to run the trains revoked his permission, and he sold the cars to BC Rail who modified them and put them into service). The reconstituted
Edwards Railcar Company seems to offer a low cost vehicle that can be used on historic routes or disconnected routes without FRA waivers, but the cars are limited in speed. One of their cars is on a
railroad brokerage site for less than $200K.
So there are good prospects up north, or when speed is not important on a tourist line. Honestly, I could see an operation on the Port of Tillamook Bay (currently disconnected from anything else due to multiple washouts in the Coast Range) to get cars off of U.S. 101. But elsewhere, there are too many regulations, too many demands, and too much money involved. A "low cost" operation quickly becomes very expensive - and smaller, more rural communities can't afford a $10 million project, let alone a $50 or $100 million project. Without a viable vehicle and without support for relaxing the crashworthiness regulation, low density passenger rail is not very likely to happen - especially when someone can dangle a top-of-the-line MCI or Prevost motorcoach for under $500K each with all the bells and whistles inside, and it doesn't require new infrastructure, expensive stations, or two people to operate.
