More Tuesday morning rail news:
— The regulatory board that oversees the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is considering whether to renew its contract with commuter rail operator Keolis Commuter Services — or whether it has any choice other than renewing the deal that expires June 30, 2022, at least for two years. Part of the problem, CommonWealth Magazine reports, is that the legislation creating the Fiscal and Management Control Board expires at the end of this June, and 2 ½ months is likely not seriously address the prospect of a new operator while dealing with the ongoing coronavirus situation. Even without the board’s sunset date, time to deal with a renewal is already growing short: the last time the MBTA put its commuter rail operation out to bid, the process took two years and attracted just two bidders. Further complicating the situation is that state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, unhappy with Keolis’ performance, had vowed in 2016 not to renew the contract, although she has subsequently backed away from that position.
— The board overseeing Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will meet on Wednesday, its first session since the loss of a ballot initiative to fund the commuter rail agency through 2059, to begin addressing changes that vote will require. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that agency officials say SMART will need to cut its workforce and daily service to steer money toward debt stemming from construction of the 45-mile rail line, while making changes that might lead to approval of a future ballot proposition.
— A new video from the California High Speed Rail Authority addresses what the electrified rail system could do to help air quality in the state’s Central Valley, which has some of the worst air pollution in the nation and has a childhood asthma rate around 20%, more than twice the rate of the rest of the state. The authority is stressing that electrified trains produce no particulate matter, while a diesel train would emit 1,500 pounds of particulates in the course of transporting a million passengers. “This is everything from a public health perspective,” California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Brian Kelly says in a news release. “We do need to move from the era diesel trains service to something newer, faster and particularly cleaner.” The video is available here.
I guess the MBTA hasn’t learned it’s lesson yet with commuter rail.
There has not been a “Deutsche Reichsbahn” since 1994. Deutsche Reichsbahn (or variants thereof) was the name of the German railway system starting in 1920, when the Weimar Republic nationalized the railways that had been operated by the various German states. In 1949 with the partition of Germany, East Germany (DDR) kept the name Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) for its system, while West Germany adopted the name Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) for its system. In 1994 with the reunification of Germany, DB took over the East German lines (DR) and adopted the new name Deutsche Bahn AG.
Mr. Narita,
I have no idea what name Russians use to refer to the German railway system of today, but I doubt even the old-time hard-liners who long for the “glory” days of the former USSR and its control of the Warsaw Pact countries, would still call it Deutsche Reichsbahn. If anyone has knowledge of what Russians actually call the current German system (either formally or colloquially), I’d be interested in learning it.
Mr Erickson tell the Russians that.(or maybe. . .)
A big chunk of the power imported from other states is hydroelectric from the Columbia River dam system.
Yes, but California imports much of it’s electricity from other states, so it is someone else’s problem
Question: Who in their right mind believes that electrical power is free of environmental impact?
Answer: 100% of Democrats and far too many Republicans.
Electrical traction obviously has its place but to say it has a large benefit to air pollution is an unsupportable theory.
“SMART” (Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit) doesn’t appear to have a very “Smart” (and sustainable) long-term funding program. Issue debt for the construction of the commuter rail line itself and yet not have a viable long-term O&M (operations and maintenance) finance plan to assure continued system operations. And maintaining ongoing commuter rail operations ain’t cheap.
Sounds like (some of?) the Sonoma-Marin Area R.T. Board members weren’t “smart” in their financial planning?
Gerald Gerald Gerald. Power comes off the grid. Any user trains or you or me uses power in the proportion it’ generated.
Wind and solar ARE cheaper than coal and nuclear. Almost no one is building new nuclear reactors. Why? Because they are ungodly expensive and complicated. The French are the most experienced at building reactors and their plant in Finland is now scheduled to open TWELVE YEARS late in 2021. It’s so bad that they shelved the fourth reactor they were going to build on the site. The US is littered with shuttered uncompetitive nuclear plants, (and many more that were never built because the economics didn’t work out.
“Six reactors have shut down in the past five years, and eight more reactors are scheduled to close by 2025 at plants in California, Iowa, Massachusetts and Michigan. Nuclear power operators have said they will close a further five reactors at four plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania if those states don’t offer subsidies.”
https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/09/05/nuclear-plant-closures-bring-economic-pain-to-cities-and-towns
Coal is dirty and “clean coal” is a lie. If you include the cost of emitting CO2 (which is not a “scare”) then coal is the MOST expensive way to produce electricity.
All new houses in California must include solar panels and on demand hot water heaters.
Stop with the CO2 air scare, then maybe we can make progress. Wind and solar are not cheaper than coal or nuclear. We should keep burning coal until we have nuclear in place. We should also stop giving politicians free reign. They don’t have expertise in any field and generally have never done anything productive. Don’t even start about their expertise in the virus.
What about all that free sunshine and wind power that “sunny southern California” gets? I realize they have to amortize the extra capital expense, but Warren Buffet claims that Berkshire Energy’s Mid American Energy subsidiary generates wind power in Iowa significantly cheaper than their Iowa competitor’s coal and natural gas plants.
It would really be great if someone could actually do an analysis of how much particulates are put into the atmosphere to move the same million passengers with electric locomotives. If I did the study I would base it on the percentage of how much of the local electric power is generated with fossil fuels.
Everyone…CAHSR is mandated to get 100% of it’s electrical power from RENEWABLE sources. However, that being said, the 20% asthma rate in children from the Central Valley is less likely coming from pollution and more likely coming from actual farming practices. There are several diseases just related to the dust from farming, let alone the air quality it reduces. I am NOT advocating to get rid of farming, that is impossible, but to lay the blame on the 20% childhood asthma rate on pollution alone is just not responsible reporting.
Still, someone needs to ask why they haven’t spoken to Deutsche Reichsbahn about how they operate the ICE3 and ICE4 high speed trains on gradients upwards of 4%. Redesigning the routes into both the S.F. Bay Area and L.A. Basin to include grades up to 4% would significantly reduce tunneling and the costs associated with said construction.