CalTrain has a web page describing the project.
The main objectives of this rebuild are:
- Replace the between-the-tracks northbound platform with a safer outside platform that will allow passengers to board without standing on the southbound tracks.
- Move platforms, close a minor street, so that trains no longer block traffic when stopped.
- General aesthetic improvements.
These are all good things, though the price tag of $20 million seems a bit steep. On the other hand, I was passing through a few weeks ago on a Sunday,
and maybe this is all more complicated than I realized. Where's the tracks?
Everything was apparently all put back together in time for Monday morning's commute.
Still, that's a big chunk of change, and we're not talking about anything fancy like grade separation or a pedestrian tunnel here. That better be some kick-ass landscaping!
3 comments:
I keep hearing that when HSR comes, it will mean four tracks wide all the way from San Jose to San Francisco. If this is true, then there is a chance this whole thing will have to be torn out in a less than a decade.
Seems to me that 4 tracks is useful anyway so Caltrain should have gone for a 4 track station, not a 2 track station, for this Burlingame upgrade.
I suspect that if HSR ever happens, it's going to be a total rebuild for most of CalTrain. Several years of weekend shutdowns again, I bet.
I agree, CalTrain should have 4 tracks in any case, to accommodate *lots* of expresses and locals without getting them all in each others' way.
I'm imagining something along the lines of the PE Long Beach line. CalTrain should aspire to be like the Pacific Electric--still the greatest suburban transit system our country has ever had!
Even if HSR will re-build a lot, I figured it would express past Burlingame in the center tracks so anything done for the Burlingame station could stand as it is prior to HSR.
Also, having four tracks at Bayshore and then again somewhere south of Palo Alto (sorry, I don't know where it is) permits the current schedule of Express Trains. Some 4-track spacing somewhere between Bayshore and Palo Alto may permit more express trans, which would be nice.
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