TrainBlog - Blogging about passenger trains, high-speed rail, Amtrak, Caltrain, VTA, railroads, transit, public transportation, passenger rail advocacy and related politics.
The Train Riders’ Association of California has just posted the latest issue of their “California Rail News” Newsletter:
- U.P. Starlight Delays Hit Press
- STB Responds To NARP On UP
- Sacramento Update
- Coast Observations
- Berlin Megastation To Boost Growth
- So Cal Rail Update
- Amtrak Board Picks New President
- TRAC Forges Ties With PCL, Other Ecology Groups
- Try A Day In Dunsmuir Via Starlight Or Bus
- Cal Rail 2020 In Oakland November 4
Up next in the line of new commuter rail services in the United States: the “Music City Star” service between downtown Nashville and Lebanon, TN. Service starts Monday, September 18 with 6 daily roundtrips (3 morning and 3 afternoon). 2 roundtrips will only go as far as Mt. Juliet.
This is good news in these times of $3 gasoline. But will it be as successful as the New Mexico Rail Runner? We’ll see.
(Image (c) Nashville RTA)
Last week, Caltrain published a preview of its future capital improvement plan, which includes snazzy fast and clean electric trains up and down the Peninsula by the year 2012. Let’s just hope they actually manage to make this come true!
I just love this quote:
The U.S. is a third-world country when it comes to rail travel, but this will make Caltrain a world-class rapid rail transit system.
The full report is due sometime later this year.
First run: 344 km/h - second and last run: 357 km/h
See also yesterday’s post and netzeitung.de (german).
Tomorrow - September 2, 2006 - Siemens will attempt to beat the World Speed Record for Electric Locomotives, which was set on May 28/29, 1955 by two French locomotives. The current record stands at 331 km/h - Siemens said they will try to go above 350 km/h. The attempt will be made using the new ES64U4 (OeBB class 1216) locomotive and will take place on the Nuremberg-Ingolstadt highspeed line in southern Germany.
Obviously they’re very confident in their ability to actually beat the record, otherwise they wouldn’t make such a big announcement in advance. It seems to be quite an event - they even brought over the two French locomotives who set the record in 1955 out of the museum so they can “witness” the event. Well, they probably have an ace up their sleeve: they’ve been running speed trials for a couple of weeks already, so maybe they have in fact already reached the targeted speed …
