The California Transportation Commission voted late September to release $39.8 million in allocations for critical work to advance the Caltrain Modernisation Program, pushing Caltrain closer to full electrification. The funds pave the way towards a future blended system with California High Speed Rail.
“With today’s vote by the CTC, Caltrain can continue on track to meeting its commitment to bring a cleaner, quieter, faster and/or more frequent service to the corridor by 2019 and take more cars off the region’s roads and highways,” said Adrienne J. Tissier, chair of Caltrain’s Joint Powers Board. “The advanced signal system will play a key role in improving the efficiency of the trains and will allow Caltrain to safely provide more service to more stations.”
The funding will be used to further design-work on Caltrain’s avanced signal system project that has been lovingly titled the Communications Based Overlay Signal System with Positive Train Control, or for those of you who like a snappy acronym, the CBOSS PTC (pronounced ce-boss-pe-tac — I may have made that up).
Cebosspetac is focused on safety, including the Positive Train Control (PTC), which prevents train-to-train collisions, enforces speed restrictions, and provides protection to workers on the right of way throughout the Caltrain system.
Pardon my terror at the present need for a system that prevents train-to-train collisions; surely that was something we dealt with decades ago, yes?
The advanced signal system will allow Caltrain to increase the number of trains they run per hour, an ever-present need as the number of riders increase.
“This is a turning point in the history of Caltrain. From this point forward, change will accelerate so that by 2019 we will have an ultra-modern, electric, train system to serve our 21st century economy,” said U.S Representative Jackie Speier (CA-12). “We need to invest in infrastructure like Caltrain to remain competitive globally. Without these types of changes, workers are stuck in traffic instead of inventing the next software program, and employers are stuck in limbo waiting for the freeways to clear. I am very pleased that the federal government worked closely with Caltrain to make this project possible.”
Source: Caltrain
Image Source: Bill Ward
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