Double-tracking and electrifying Southern California commuter rail?

west point wrote: ↑Sun Aug 25, 2024 8:19 pm Caltrain's 2 main track electrification, all same performance EMUs is the ideal of 1/2 hour clock face operations. The 4 track passing area will provide for any incidents that may delay the locals. That is although that 4 track area will no longer be used for baby bullets passing locals.

So Caltrain won't be having peak-time expresses?

What is an unknown is the bridge replacement of both bridges that will call for single tracking in the future that may mess up schedules.

Which bridges?

I decided to add to my OP by finding out which single-track parts have enough right-of-way for two tracks and which don't. 2 = double-track, 12 = single, wide enough for 2 tracks, 1 = single, wide enough only for that track.

• LAUS - 2 - Burbank
• Burbank - 2 - Woodley Ave. - 12 - siding - 12 - Winetka Ave. - 2 - Mason Ave. - 12 - De Soto Ave. - 2 - Chatsworth St. - 12 - N Heather Lee Ln - 1 - (Topanga Canyon Road tunnel) - Old Santa Susana Pass Rd. - 12 - W White Oak Wy. - 1 (Santa Susana Tunnel) - 12 - Kuehner Dr. - 2 - Katherine Rd. - 12 - Madera Rd. - 2 - Los Alamos Canyon Rd. - 12 - Spring Rd. - 2 - Sierra Ave. - 12 - Adolfo Rd. - 2 - Pleasant Valley Rd. - 12 - Rose Ave. - 2 - Cooper Rd. - 12
• Burbank - 2 - Lima St. - 12 - Penrose St. - 2 - Sheldon St. - 12 - Larkspur St. - 2 - Balboa Blvd. - 12 - Sierra Hwy. - 1 (Newhall tunnel) - Pine St. - 2 - 12th St. - 12 - Oak Ridge Dr. - 2 - near Soledad Canyon Rd. - 12 - Canyon Park Blvd. - 2 - Vista Canyon - 12 - Oak Spring Canyon Rd. - 2 - near Santa Clara River - 12 - 1 (Capra Rd. tunnel) - 12 - Capra Rd. - 1 (tunnel) - 12 - Polsa Rosa Ranch - 2 - Crown Valley Rd. - 12 - Foreston Dr. - 2 - Angeles Forst Hwy. - 12 - E Palmdale Blvd - 2 - Lancaster
• LAUS - 2 - Marguerita Ave. - 12 - Baldwin Ave. - 2 - Amar Rd. - 12 - 1 (San Bernardino Fwy. tunnel) - 12 - N Irwindale Ave. - 2 - Barranca Ave. - 1,12 - S Lone Hill Ave. - 12 - White Ave. - 2 - Central Ave. - 12 - Archibald Ave. - 2 - Rochester Ave. - 12 - Etiwanda Ave. - 2 - Citrus Ave. - 12 - Locust Ave. - 2 - S Lilac Ave. - 12 - W Rialto Ave. - 1 - San Bernardino
• San Bernardino - 12 - Tippecanoe - 2 - Nevada St. - 12 - Redlands University
• San Bernardino - 2 - W Rialto Ave. - 12 - Mill St. - 2 - Riverside
• LAUS - 2 - S Sultana Ave. - 12 - S Bon View Ave. - 2 - Limonite Ave. - 12 - Santa Ana River Trail - 2 - Riverside Ave. - 12 - Riverside
• Riverside - 2 - E/W Citrus St. - 1 - Eastridge Ave. - 2 - Daytona Cove - 12 - South Perris
• LAUS - 2 - Fullerton
• Fullerton - 2 - West Corona
• West Corona - 2 - Riverside
• West Corona - 2 - S Van Buren St. - 12 - N Tustin Ave. - 2 - La Palma Ave. - 12 - W Collins Ave. - 2 - Orange
• Fullerton - 2 - Orange
• Orange - 2 - Junipero Serra Rd. - 12 - San Juan Capistrano - 2 - Del Obispo St. - 12 - near I-5 - 2 - Pacific Coast Hwy. - 12 - San Clemente - 1 - Beach Club Rd. - 2 - Las Pulgas Rd.- 12 - near Stuart Mesa Rd. 2 - Harbor Dr. - 12 - Surfrider Wy. - 2 - Oceanside
• Oceanside - 1 - S Coast Hwy. - 12 - El Camino Real - 2 - College Blvd. - 12 - North Dr. - 2 - Montgomery Dr. - 12 - N Las Posas Rd. - 2 - Shelly Dr. - 12 - Escondido
• Oceanside - 2 - Eaton St. - 12 - Carlsbad Village Dr. - 2 - Avenida Encinas - 12 - East E St. - 2 - Dahlia Dr. - 12 - 26th St. - 2 - Coast Blvd. - 1 - N Torrey Pines Rd. - 12 - near Sorrento Valley Rd. - 2 - I-805 - 12 - Miramar Rd. - 2 - San Diego

After all that following of Metrolink and Sprinter and Coaster rail lines, some things are evident to me.

Most of their single-tracked right of way is wide enough for double tracking, or else can easily be expanded to accommodate a second track. Is this a relic from a century ago when rail transport was more common? In the Dark Ages of US railroading a half-century ago, for lack of a better term, many RR's slimmed down their trackage so that they don't have to spend on maintaining extra trackage. Was that done a lot in the LA and SD areas?

That aside, some single-tracked parts look like they were originally single-tracked with no evidence of double-tracking.

Several rail bridges are single-track, including the LA-SD line's bridges over the marshes north of San Diego. Those bridges have no evidence of abandoned bridges near them for second tracks.

Also originally single-tracked are tunnels to the northeast and northwest of the San Fernando Valley, and I suspect that they may be the northernmost limits of Metrolink electrification.

Also where the LA-SD line goes near the Pacific Ocean shoreline with steep slopes on one side or both. Some of these slopes are unstable, and landslides off of them have caused shutdowns of those parts of the route. I've seen some proposals for moving the line inward, but doing so is likely to be very expensive.

Metrolink Officials Need to Move Forward on Electrification - Streetsblog California and Don’t expect Metrolink to go electric any time soon, officials say | KTLA

But Metrolink may already have commissioned preliminary studies of where to electrify. I remember some decades ago going to BART's library at its Lake Merritt headquarters and reading a lot of planning documents.

To get an idea of what lines might be worth electrifying, I looked at some recent and planned Metrolink upgrades.

Metrolink schedules: Train Schedules | Metrolink

Metrolink makes major expansion on Antelope Valley line, opens new train station - Oct 9, 2023 / 01:50 PM PDT

Last trains on weekday evenings went from Lancaster 6:11 pm, LAUS 9:39 pm to Lancaster 10:11 pm, LAUS 11:39 pm.

Weekend trains went from 6 to 12, though half of them are short turns, going LAUS - Via Princessa instead of LAUS - Lancaster.

Southern California's Metrolink to increase number of trains by 30% - Jun 28, 2024 / 04:30 PM PDT

The Orange County and San Bernardino lines were two specific parts of Metrolink’s system that Kettle said will experience “significant” service increases. A similar service increase was implemented last year on the Antelope Valley line.

Metrolink will also roll out a new concept in which trains won’t always run an entire service route from end to end; some will go back and forth more frequently between regions with more demand.

Metrolink already has some short turns, so will Metrolink have more of them?

So this means the San Bernardino Line and the inner parts of the Antelope Valley and Orange County lines are the places where Metrolink is investing the most in service. That makes them likely candidates for electrification.

Petition: Tell Metrolink board to commit to electrification! – Californians for Electric Rail linking to the petition itself: Electrify Metrolink Regional Rail in Southern California! - Action Network

The page has a diagram of possible electrification, though that diagram is not justified in any detail in the text of that page.

• (AV) LAUS - 1 - Vista Canyon - 2 - Lancaster
• (VC) Burbank - 2 - Moorpark - 3 - Ventura
• (SB) LAUS - 1 - San Bernardino - 3 - Redlands
• (RS) Commerce/Montebello - 3 - Riverside
• (9P) Riverside - 3 - Perris
• (IEOC/9P) Fullerton - 2 -Riverside - 2- San Bernardino
• (IEOC) Corona West - 3 - Orange
• (OC) LAUS - 1 - Anaheim - 2 - Oceanside - 1 - San Diego

That's more ambitious than what I'd earlier proposed, though overall similar. I'd used Metrolink's ridership numbers and short turns, and Metrolink's recent service-expansion plans also agree with Phase 1.

SCORE | Metrolink - "The SCORE program is an ambitious capital program that will upgrade Metrolink's system in time for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

• SIMI VALLEY DOUBLE TRACK PROJECT - Hidden Ranch Dr. - Tapo Canyon td. - (later) Sequoia Ave. - under construction?
• BURBANK JUNCTION SPEED IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT - triple-tracking a siding just SE of the AV-VC junction. - complete?
• CHATSWORTH STATION IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT
• Marengo Siding Extension Project - Marengo St. - Fowler St. - completed?
• El Monte Siding Extension Project - construction of a third track? Between Ramona Blvd. and I-10 - under construction?
• Rancho Cucamonga Siding Extension Project - Archibald Ave. - Hellman Ave. - Cucamonga Creek - completed?
• Serra Siding Extension Project - Orange County Transportation Authority - Victoria Blvd. - Beach Rd.

I feel stupid about my following the San Bernardino line. I looked at the El Monte station, and the station platforms are at the southern tracks. I followed them westward, and they merge into a single track. The line curves southward to the east back of Rio Hondo, and then goes into the median of I-10, the San Bernardino Freeway. There is a siding just south of Ramona Rd., then it goes into the median of FasTrak Express toll road, reaching Cal State LA. It stays single-track until it passes underneath Marengo St., then it becomes double-track and stays that way until it arrives at the west bank of the Los Angeles River.

Most of that route is narrow, only wide enough for a single track. To double-track it, one must either narrow I-10 from the median or else move I-10 outward, away from its median.

I've found Hybrid Rail Service Planning for San Bernardino – Los Angeles Corridor - November 19, 2018

Figures 5.1, p. 21, and 7.1, p. 39 show the current state of single vs. double tracking, and show various options for double-tracking. It blanks out west of El Monte, and states that two single-track segments just west of that station would be relatively expensive to double-track. The eastern one of these two contains Baldwin Park station, its east end is N Irwindale Ave., and its west end Amar Rd. However, the western one is rather confusing.

lensovet wrote: ↑Sat Aug 24, 2024 7:12 pm CAHSR has zero plans for dedicated trackage in urban areas. The cost would probably go up to 1 trillion if they tried that.

So it makes zero sense to electrify the lines shared with CAHSR because CAHSR is going to electrify them for free.

Are you certain about that? My understanding was that the preferred option between LAUPT and Anaheim involved quad tracking much of the current ROW, electrifying the two inner tracks for CAHSR, and leaving the outer tracks for MetroLink and BNSF diesel operations. Would that not constitute dedicated trackage in an urban area?

From the CAHSR fact sheet:

The Preferred Alternative would realign the existing rail tracks to allow for two additional tracks to be added to the majority of the corridor. It will feature two electrified tracks for high-speed rail that can be shared with Metrolink and Amtrak, and two non-electrified tracks for Metrolink, Amtrak, and freight within the existing corridor. Closer to Los Angeles Union Station, there are already four existing mainline tracks and two of those will be electrified.

I did incorrectly assume that Southern California was going to end up with a blended system like Caltrain, which was wrong for the Burbank to LA section. However, it does appear that the tracks will still not be dedicated tracks, as per CAHSR own materials.

The LA to Anaheim section is worse. Current situation between LA and Fullerton is a 3-track BSNF main shared by Amtrak, Metrolink, and BNSF. The proposal moved forward in 2023 was to add a fourth track, electrify two of the four tracks, and allow freight trains to use all four tracks to mitigate local opposition to the construction of an intermodal facility that would have compensated BNSF for the loss of use of one of the existing tracks. This change reduces the number of trains per hour from four to two on the LA-ANA corridor. Fullerton to ANA is 2 tracks and will remain that way, with electrification added.

Oh and they've also decided that of the 9 at-grade crossings that were slated to be removed via grade separation or road closure, 7 are going to be left as-is.

lensovet wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2024 10:43 pm Oh and they've also decided that of the 9 at-grade crossings that were slated to be removed via grade separation or road closure, 7 are going to be left as-is.

That means max speeds of just 110 mph. Traditional Siemens Ventures and Chargers can achieve max speeds of 125 mph on grade separated tracks. The only reason to use HSR trainsets along here is to have a one seat ride, without a transfer in downtown LA, to cities far to the north. I can't imagine how much longer a transfer could occur in downtown LA vs a one seat ride. At most it would be a few minutes, assuming there were through running trains.

According to the presentation, the speeds planned on this corridor would not exceed those allowed for grade crossings. At the end of the day, this is just a measure to reduce costs and pacify the communities along the route, who seem to prefer reduced safety in return for…being against "displacement"?

lensovet wrote: ↑Sat Sep 07, 2024 9:22 pm According to the presentation, the speeds planned on this corridor would not exceed those allowed for grade crossings. At the end of the day, this is just a measure to reduce costs and pacify the communities along the route, who seem to prefer reduced safety in return for…being against "displacement"?

True. Very few people love being displaced from their homes and business properties.
Would you?

Metro Van Nuys Light Rail Line Receives $893 Million in Federal Full Funding Grant Agreement - Streetsblog Los Angeles -- this is likely to put a crimp in plans to double-track the Antelope Valley Line, since that light-rail line will run along that line between Van Nuys Blvd. and Hubbard St., where the Sylmar / San Fernando Metrolink station is.