TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

… promises to be an interesting one with several new high speed lines opening in Europe:

* The biggest one will be the TGV Est line running from Paris east towards Strasbourg and Frankfurt (Germany).
* Then there will be the second and final segment of the CTRL between London and the Channel Tunnel, which should shave off another 10 minutes or so of the travel time between London and Paris/Brussels. Eurostar already now has reached over 70% market share between London and Paris and this should help even further.
* In Belgium, two new high speed lines should be completed that year - first, the segment from Liege east towards Germany (for trains running from Brussels towards Cologne) and second, the line north from Antwerp towards the Netherlands (and onwards in the Netherlands) for trains running from Brussels to Amsterdam.
* Then - important for parts of Switzerland - the rehabilitation of the line between Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde should be completed in that year as well, permitting the speed-up of the TGV trains between Paris and Geneva.

All this should result in an abundance of new high speed train connections being opened in this part of Europe and considerable speed-ups of other already existing connections.

SBB have put up a new website in a new adapted design, etc. - check it out!

So I watched the trailer for the new movie of the children’s book “The Polar Express” yesterday - and right towards the end, there’s this quote:

One thing about trains: it doesn’t matter where they’re going - what matters is deciding to get on.

I think that sums it up pretty nicely for a lot of us railfans out there, doesn’t it?

PS. I’d love to go watch that movie with my three year old daughter, but why do they have to make these movies so loud with all that screaming and stuff nowadays? She gets really scared by that … I think it may be because she doesn’t watch TV all the time, like other kids do and therefore, she isn’t used to that kind of thing. It’s a pity …

Got the latest issue of the French Rail Passion magazine yesterday (well, it was the October issue, but I guess they take a a while to get here) - it had interesting reports about various High Speed Rail lines currently under construction in Europe (mainly France, of course, but also Belgium and Spain).

The first phase of the TGV East line will be finished around 2007 and will allow TGV trains to reach Strasbourg and then Southern Germany and Switzerland. A future connection with the German line towards Stuttgart and Munich seems obvious and the line from Strasbourg through Mulhouse to Basle (Switzerland) will be upgraded to allow 220 kph running.

Also, construction of the line from Antwerp towards the Netherlands is progressing and soon it will be posssible to travel by HST from Amsterdam to Paris (and southern France). On the south end, Spain is building a line from Madrid to Barcelona (half finished right now) and then on to the French border - in standard gauge notably - and this will allow for through HST from Madrid to Paris or actually even Madrid to Amsterdam or London for that matter.

So in short, it’s beginning to be a network and the next generation of HST will be interoperable (since most of the countries still have different systems for train control, etc.). Also, introduction of ETCS is looming on the horizon (although this will be expensive and at first only be introduced on the most important lines).

And what is happening here in the U.S.? From what I heard last Saturday, there’s a chance that the high speed rail bods won’t even be on the ballot in 2006 …

Caltrain trainsets waiting for their next assignment.

Two trainsets ready for departure. The one on the left will be departing for San Jose shortly.

This “old” trainset with an F40 locomotive is ready to leave the station.

This Sunday, TRAC had organized a tour of the Muni network using two vintage trolleys, car #130 and car #1811.

The MUNI yard where we started our trip. We had to shortly pull in there to avoid a revenue train on the main line.

Outbound on Taraval towards the Pacific Ocean.

Another view towards the Pacific.

We stopped on a spur track at 48th and Taraval for a short restroom break.

Photo runby at the corner of Ulloa and 15th.

Milan car #1811 rounds the curve.

Trying to avoid a revenue train during an unplanned restroom stop.

The Milan cars still have their Italian language interior.

I took this picture when I was at the VTA Light Rail Whisman Station, waiting for the 9:09 AM train … at around 9:00 AM. It’s just to show that the obviously haven’t switched back to Standard Time yet.

And actually, there are two train status displays there, one for each track - and their times were about 15 seconds off…