jamesinclair wrote:
...
January 28th, 2010
Roughly one hundred million more ... to improvements ... including ... 110 mph trains on the Pacific Surfliner between San Diego and Los Angeles.
http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2010 ... ecipients/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A nice find.
But looking at the table at the bottom of that article:
California $2.34 b
» $2.25 b - ROW, construction on CAHSR
» $51 m - Surfliner service improvements
» $23 m - Capitol service improvements
» $20 m - Train improvements
Have to say, no wonder nobody noticed any effects, LOL, because $51 million just ain't enuff, spread over a 128-mile route, to get close to 110 mph. Or 100 mph. Or even 90 mph.
California can be proud of its on-going, and often bi-partisan, support of passenger rail. Incremental improvements to the
Pacific Surfliner have been upgrading infrastructure -- a few new culverts along here, and maybe straightening a curve there -- but no one of them makes a big bang. They just help make a corridor where ridership continues to grow. I'd expect that the next little speed improvement could be after the bi-levels and "fast accelerating" new locomotives arrive out west, probably in early 2018 or so. And maybe another frequency, to get closer to an hourly clock-face schedule, using the added equipment.
I'm hoping to see serious upgrades begin soon to the L.A.-Santa Barbara-San Luis Obispo segment, with perhaps another
Surfliner frequency added soon after more equipment arrives. Then the big thing to help Amtrak's national system will be upgrading the track L.A.-San Francisco Bay Area and starting the
Coast Daylight. Adding a second train, and taking an hour or more out of that route to help tweak the times on the
Coast Starlight, could reduce the
Starlight's costs a bit while adding a lot more riders. Of course, with the crazies in Congress, there won't be any federal money for upgrades like this. It will all be carbon-tax dollars.