TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

Add Brazil to the list of countries thinking about High Speed Rail …

Brazil’s government, confronting chaos in domestic air travel, is dusting off plans to have a high-speed train line built between the country’s two biggest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials say.

[via Reuters ]

Recently, Arnold (Schwarzenegger, our Governor here in California) was on Newsweek’s cover being celebrated for his new greenness, however, his love for the environment doesn’t seem to translate into a support for alternative means of transportation, but maybe that’s to be expected from someone who owns and drives several Hummers … For not only does his proposed budget cut a lot of money that was supposed to go to transit - and that while gas prices are closing in on the $4 mark in some areas - but also is he just about the only person of importance left in this state that does not support High Speed Rail - at least that seems to be what this article concludes. There definitely has been a lot of positive press recently and several state legislators have voiced their renewed support for the project, but for the governor, it does not seem to be a priority. Let’s hope someone can convince him otherwise.

Last Monday evening around 10:15pm, a Capitol Corridor engineer was assaulted by a group of trespassers in West Sacramento, CA. The Sacramento-bound train was halted shortly before the I-Street bridge because debris had been placed on the track. Apparently, the conductor then left the train to investigate. When the engineer saw that the conductor was being threatened by a group of juveniles, he also descended from the train in order to assist the conductor. Subsequently, the engineer was assaulted and severely beaten. He had to be hospitalized after the assault. Apparently, no passengers were harmed in the incident.

This is very disturbing - don’t these people have better things to do? Do they seriously think it’s fun to just stop a train and then beat up the engineer?

[via sfgate.com]

On April 10, SNCF started selling tickets for the new TGV Est line (service starts June 10). They are offering an introductory price of 15 Euros one way for this summer - 5000 seats per day will be available at that price. Apparently, these tickets are selling really well - according to this article, they have already sold 145,000 tickets during the first 3 days. A similar promotion is available for trips to and from Switzerland: 18 Swiss Francs from Basel and 22 Swiss Francs from Zurich (one way).

Air France seems to want to take up the fight - they currently hold a 65% market share on the Paris-Strasbourg route - and have also reduced their fares. EasyJet on the other hand seems to throw in the towel - they’re stopping their service on the Basel-Paris route at the end of June.

via Alta Velocidad Ferroviaria

Late last night, I got a phone call from a reporter for the Santa Barbara Newsroom (that site in itself has an interesting story) - she said she was writing a story about Santa Barbara’s plans for commuter rail and Union Pacific and wanted to use one of my pictures on their site. I said, sure, go ahead, and this is the result.

However, the real story is what she says in her article (Commuter Rail to Santa Barbara Faces “Huge Obstacles”): Santa Barbara would like to set up a commuter rail service to Ventura County (Oxnard), but Union Pacific does not want to allow this without double-tracking the line. In fact, they said “Commuter trains on the single-track section between the San Fernando Valley and San Jose might degrade the freight service that Union Pacific is committed to.” Did you notice that? Not “between the San Fernando Valley and Santa Barbara“, no, they said “between the San Fernando Valley and San Jose“. So not only do they not want any new passenger rail service to Santa Barbara, they do not want any new service on the whole Coast Line!

Just to be clear from the start - this is a Children’s book. So why do I even review it? Well, I’m still quite new to this whole thing where bloggers start being treated almost like members of the press, so whenever somebody asks me to review a book or something (doesn’t happen that often), I try to do it. So today, I got an email from the publishers of this book, who offered to send me the PDF in order to let me preview and review this book, so I thought, what the heck, I have three small children, I’ll show them the book and report on what they think about it.

Timmy & Tammy’s Train of Thought, written by Oliver Chin and illustrated by Heath McPherson, published by Immedium.

So what did Alexandra (5 1/2 years) and Michelle (2 1/2 years) say after we read the book to them? They both liked it. Alexandra especially liked the various different trains that are depicted in the illustrations. Michelle just wanted to read it over and over again. Both of them wanted to go buy the book, Michelle even wants to buy two of them (smart girl that she is, she knows that if we get two, then she doesn’t have to share with her sister).

And what did I think? It’s a nice book - I liked the illustrations. Also, the story is kind of interesting and somewhat unusual - it’s about these two kids, who like to hear stories about trains. So one day, their mom and dad decide to take them on a train ride. At first, it looks like they’re just boarding a miniature train, but then, the train changes it’s shape on every subsequent page. On one page, it’s a freight train, then a subway or a streetcar, at some point it actually looks like a Caltrain commuter train :-).

So I guess if you have younger children and they like to hear stories about trains, they might like this book. It’s not really a train book though - they shouldn’t expect to learn a lot about trains. It’s a story of two kids riding a train and about their adventures.

This book is available for pre-order on the publishers website (you’ll get your copy autographed by the author if you pre-order it now) and also on Amazon.com and probably other booksellers.

Disclaimer: I did not get any compensation whatsoever for writing this review.

Over the past week, there has been quite a lot of press and also comments by other bloggers about this new speed record. Here are a couple additional notes/comments.

• Peet (in German) points to the one video clip that is the most interesting in his view, i.e. this one here. Looks like it is a direct reproduction of the onboard recording - with no added commentary by a TV reporter or some such. You can however hear the audio from the onboard intercom, i.e. between the driver and the laboratory, etc.
• Philippe Herisse gives an interesting eye-witness account on his blog (in French). Philippe is an engineer with SNCF and writes articles for the French publisher La Vie du Rail. He was onboard the record-setting train.
• Alstom/RFF/SNCF have set up an official site to document the record.
• Somebody posted a curve showing elapsed time/distance vs. speed on the French forum “Trains en Voyage” - see this thread here (in French, registration required). Quite interesting …
• Also, this record seems to have revived interest in high speed rail in California - it probably created more public and press attention for the ailing California High Speed Rail project than years of rail advocacy. Maybe we should all thank the French for inviting those lawmakers… Hmm, I wonder whether it was a coincidence that this record attempt took place in the same week as the California legislature’s spring break … After all, the CAHSR project potentially represents big business for Alstom.
• With all the articles that appeared in the press, I noticed one thing: what’s it with this animosity towards the French? I often saw phrases similar to “… the French of all people …” used when talking about this record. Why would that be so surprising? Or is it just that Americans don’t like the French? I can see why the Germans would be jealous, but why should America care?
• Then there was the usual Maglev vs. HSR debate: Maglev supporters were quick to point out that the Maglev record hasn’t quite been beaten (nobody claimed it was). Just to make it clear - I’m not a big fan of Maglev. Sure, it sounds interesting and is certainly intriguing from a technology point of view, but to me, it seems that Maglev is still very far from being a proven technology. Conventional High Speed Rail is proven technology, in use in multiple countries with thousands of miles of track in service and multiple manufacturers of equipment, etc. HSR today can basically be considered as being available off the shelf - just call Alstom or Siemens (or Bombardier/Talgo) and ask for a quote. Also, HSR is compatible with existing rail lines, Maglev is not (admittedly, this is less the case here in the US than in Europe, since most US rail lines are not already electrified. But that’s a minor point, compared with the fact that Maglev is a completely separate system).

Came across this page today while searching for old SP Passenger train timetable information - quite interesting to see what rail passenger service was like in California 50 years ago …

1958 SP Passenger Timetable

I’m working on a little scheduling exercise and am looking for approximate schedules of the BNSF hotshot intermodal trains (UPS) over Tehachapi pass (especially, departure/arrival times at Bakersfield and Mojave). Does anyone happen to have an idea or can maybe point me to a page that has that info? I googled it, but couldn’t find anything … Thanks.

I took this picture from the ramp to the pedestrian underpass at San Antonio station. I think it’s a rather interesting perspective.