Will this really reduce pollutants to 3% of the present or put some of them where the power is generated??

Do we have enough power generated locally [I doubt it] or will we be building more power plants somewhere else??

Regardless, sounds good but would like more info.

Makes me wonder how near capacity the current commuter trains are. Longer trains and more of them are probably good. But how many years from now would they be desirable? Needed?

Does this Caltrain electrification mean that we will FINALY AT SOME POINT have grade separations at Rengstorff @ Central Expressway AND AT Central Expressway @ Moffett/Castro. The traffic at these intersections is already bad. And the wait for a green light when trains pass is a long wait.

@CopperC:

Many of the commute hour trains quickly reach standing room only capacity and various cyclists will recount how many times they have been denied entry because the bike cars were full.

Heck, if you have gone to a *single* weekend Giants game on Caltrain, you'd know the answer. Clearly, you rarely ride Caltrain. For a Sunday day game, I board NB801 at 10:50am at Mountain View, grabbing a seat. By the time it departs Redwood City, it is SRO.

Electrification removes the passenger-less diesel locomotive, adding more passenger capacity for the same length train.

Electrification also allows for shorter off-peak trains.

Remember, this is the way the rest of the industrialized world does it: Europe, Southeast Asia, etc.

Do you know how long Japan has had high-speed rail with an electric overhead catenary? *FIFTY* years.

I think Caltrain might be ready to join the 21st century, or Honshu, Japan circa 1965.

Will the updates to Caltrain allow us to run more frequent trains between Castro and San Antonio? I would love to see some sort of rapid transit between these two hotspots, expanded tracks along that stretch could do amazing things.

@Localmotive?

Part of the electrification plan includes one more train per hour, so yes, frequency could increase, although we are very far away from seeing actual timetables and which stations would see additional service.

However, there is no plan at this time to create point-to-point rapid transit service.

Personally, I'm not convinced there is adequate demand to justify the additional expense to build such a line between Mountain View and San Antonio, as well as allocate resources (train, staff, etc.).

Now if Caltrain was hitting standing-room only specifically between the two stops frequently, then it would something up for consideration, but as a Caltrain rider myself, nothing I have seen on the train (i.e., vestibules) makes me believe that there is a large number of riders that board at Mountain View/San Antonio and get off at the other stop.

Higher residential density along El Camino + higher business density along El Camino. Makes more sense to hop on a bus at El Camino. Hopefully VTA will build out bus services there.

The demand for CalTrain service is growing and will continue to grow. It's not necessary to look at as a way to get from San Antonio Center to downtown Mountain View. Consider that most trains do not stop at San Antonio now due to the time it takes the diesel train to get back up to speed. With electrification, more of the EXISTING trains will be able to serve the San Antonio Center area where the Merlone Geier project is in the midst of building two new huge office towers and a hotel. Not only that, but the old Safeway and adjacent strip mall has been the target of proposals for a large scale residential development.There is new development all over the area, and there is industrial land ripe for further development. The whole area there is exploding in density. There can be a lot more use made of the train stop there. There's an underpass for San Antonio Road so there is Zero disruption to auto traffic when the train stops there.

Not only that, but there is residential development existing at Carmel Terrace which is about as close to Cal Train as it is to El Camino. And Prometheus and others have additional residential development planned at various points centered between the Train tracks and El Camino Real, but along San Antonio Road.

However, not much of this increased use is going to be to reach Castro Street in Mountain View. Note that there used to (recently) be a stop of some trains at Rengstorff. That stop disrupted traffic and was discontinued mainly in order to speed up the travel time for the trains. If the city ever gets that crossing grade separated from Central Expressway, it would make sense to consider a train stop there again as well. Yet another location with vast new development going on, primarily residential...

Meanwhile, some day VTA will wake up and provide better cross service for people trying to reach the transit corridor of Cal Train from other parts of the city, including of course El Camino Real. That need is woefully neglected and private passenger automobiles are heavily relied upon by the residents of many areas, who also have no transit alternative to reach El Camino Real. There's virtually zero transit service along San Antonio Road at present and with all the new development something is bound to be done to address that. It's just as much a high development corridor as is ECR in the zoning plans at present, sanctioned by ABAG and friends.