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LA Times: Facing war with Trump, troubled California bullet train pushes biggest contract ever

Here's the part I found most interesting, (emphasis mine):
The agency took a key step last week toward issuing a 30-year-long contract to install track, set up high-voltage electrical lines, create a digital signaling system, build a heavy maintenance train garage and obligate future maintenance of the equipment and track.

It would cover future track from San Jose to Bakersfield, more than half the proposed Los Angeles-to-San Francisco system. It would lock the state into a maintenance contract, as well as equipment, on segments that it currently does not have money to build.

(snip)

Under the federal grants, California has to complete 119 miles of rail structures and install track in the Central Valley by 2022, but there is no requirement for electrical power, signals or a maintenance facility.
Click to expand...
 
They need to build a maintenance facility, signals, and electrical equipment. I mean, who are some of these naysayers kidding. This needs to happen. The state will round up the money to build to San Jose.
 
The California State Assembly has passed a resolution directing CAHSRA to not issue the track and systems contract or the system maintenance contract until the Legislature reviews the plan and appropriates the remaining $4.2 billion in funds.
https://www.latimes.com/california/...embly-high-speed-rail-wants-contract-deferredIt's a symbolic move because the California State Senate would need to approve a similar resolution and it's not clear that leaders are interested in doing that.

Also, the resolution does not carry the force of law to actually block the rail authority from issuing the contract.

But... if lawmakers are able to block the contracts... we may finally get to see if the Chargers can make the 125 mph that Siemens promised!
 
Lawmakers have proposed shifting the San Joaquins diesel trains to the new high-speed infrastructure where they could presumably be sped up to 125 mph (faster than the current 79 mph, but a lot slower than the 220 mph high-speed trains).

That said... other than possibly on the TTCI test track... the Siemens Chargers have never operated at 125 mph.
 
rickycourtney said:
Lawmakers have proposed shifting the San Joaquins diesel trains to the new high-speed infrastructure where they could presumably be sped up to 125 mph (faster than the current 79 mph, but a lot slower than the 220 mph high-speed trains).

That said... other than possibly on the TTCI test track... the Siemens Chargers have never operated at 125 mph.
Click to expand...
OK thx. I tried to read the linked LA Times article but just got more confused. Can't tell the players without a scorecard!

Isn't Brightline/Virgin using Chargers? Under the current construction schedule, they should be running between Cocoa and Orlando at 125mph in 2022.
 
rickycourtney said:
Lawmakers have proposed shifting the San Joaquins diesel trains to the new high-speed infrastructure where they could presumably be sped up to 125 mph (faster than the current 79 mph, but a lot slower than the 220 mph high-speed trains).

That said... other than possibly on the TTCI test track... the Siemens Chargers have never operated at 125 mph.
Click to expand...
MARC has Chargers; I've ridden behind them. I don't know how they operate now, but in the early 2000s, the 5:20 pm express heading north from Washington regularly hit 120 mph between New Carrollton and BWI. They were being pulled by electric locos then, but it's the same track, suitable for 125 operation. The trains stopped going so fast is because there was always a train ahead of us, so if we caught up to it, we had to slow down.
 
joelkfla said:
Isn't Brightline/Virgin using Chargers? Under the current construction schedule, they should be running between Cocoa and Orlando at 125mph in 2022.
Click to expand...
MARC Rider said:
MARC has Chargers; I've ridden behind them. I don't know how they operate now, but in the early 2000s, the 5:20 pm express heading north from Washington regularly hit 120 mph between New Carrollton and BWI. They were being pulled by electric locos then, but it's the same track, suitable for 125 operation. The trains stopped going so fast is because there was always a train ahead of us, so if we caught up to it, we had to slow down.
Click to expand...
Fair points. I mostly was thinking about California's Chargers... but I will now retract my sarcastic joke. 😋
 
Italy and Germany have been using a blended approach for years. Italy has a high speed main line that roughly follows the path of the traditional route and there are several junctions where trains can switch from the high speed line to join the traditional line to make a station stop. After the station stop the train rejoins the high speed line. I rode a night train in a couchette on this line in the 1990. We departed Rome a couple of hours late because of a strike that IMHO was timed to coincide with the time Italy was playing a big match in the world cup. Once we got under way that train was moving. Since most announcements were in Italian I had no idea what was going on. I knew I was in the correct car for my overnight ride to Zurich Switzerland. There was no AC on those cars, and the window was open as we hustled down that high speed line. The tunnels were loud. The next morning we were pretty much back on schedule out of Milan.

I took a couple of day time rides on that line too in 1990 and in subsequent years. The high speed line is similar to the Shinkansen in that it is on bridges and tunnels from Rome to Florence. And then a series of tunnels between Florence and Bolognia as it crosses the mountain range that goes down the middle of Italy. Between Florence and Rome are the junctions that allowed local InterCity (IC) trains to diverge off of the main line. One junction starts inside a tunnel. It took a couple of ride over the years and some internet research to determine how the train diverged from the high speed line.

If this approach is used with the Chargers and Sieman cars in California this might knock about 30 minutes off of the running time. It would eliminate freight train delays and grade crossing accidents.
 

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