-
What is the Future of Passenger Rail Service in California?
By Noel T. Braymer In my opinion in one word: Good ! We have come a long way since 1979 when I first became involved in rail advocacy and no one was sure then that there would even be any Rail Passenger service in 2015. The question is no longer if there will be any…
-
What’s Needed to Build a World Class Rail Passenger Service in San Diego:Money!
By Noel T. Braymer A lawsuit against the $219 Billion dollar San Diego County Transportation Plan up to 2050 was upheld in a State Appeals court last November. The lawsuit is based on the fact that the current transportation plan doesn’t meet the State’s target for reducing Greenhouse Gases by 2050. The State’s goal is…
-
What’s Ahead for California Rail Passenger Service in 2015
By Noel T. Braymer Construction is the big news for 2015. Construction is needed before we can expand service in many places. The year starts out with the Official Ground Breaking for the California High Speed Rail Project in Fresno on January 6th. This ceremony has been put off for over a year until funding…
-
More Good News for California High Speed Rail
By Noel T. Braymer After passage of Prop 1A in November 2008 which gave the California High Speed Rail project almost 10 billion dollars in funding,everything seemed to go wrong. The project was on death’s door by 2012 with growing opposition from property owners who could be affected by the project. This was particularly true…
-
Metrolink Needs a Plan, and some Leadership
By Noel T. Braymer Metrolink has failed to fulfill its mission to be the Southern California Regional Rail Passenger Railroad. The official name for Metrolink is the Southern California Regional Rail Authority. Instead the management of Metrolink at its inception was under the impression that they were running a commuter railroad to primarily carry people…
-
Rail Connections to California’s Major Airports
By Noel T. Braymer California now has some connections by rail at its airports. This will improve over the next 10 to 20 years. The two airports now with the best rail connections are San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Bob Hope Airport in Burbank near downtown Los Angeles.. SFO has direct and regular service…
-
The Top 3 Most Needed High Speed Rail Connections in California
By Noel T. Braymer Current planning by the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) is for initial High Speed Rail service of 34 round trips daily by 2022 between Merced and Burbank. By 2022 with the completion of run through tracks by 2020 at Los Angeles Union Station there will be plenty of connections from…
-
Passenger Train Service depends on healthy Freight Railroads
By Noel T. Braymer The nation’s freight railroads have plenty of business now. In fact maybe it has too much business to handle current traffic, let alone future growth. This in turn has affected several long distance passenger trains, often causing them to be habitually late and making long distance rail passenger service less viable.…
-
Are Hybrids the Future for Locomotives?
By Noel T. Braymer The Diesel-Electric locomotive has been around since the 1930’s. Since the 1950’s it has been the standard locomotive for most American Railroads. The Diesel-Electrics drove out the Steam locomotives for simple economic reasons: one Diesel-Electric could do the work of at least 3 steam locomotives. Will economics again drive out the…
-
Everything Starts in California
Commentary by and opinion of Noel T. Braymer California has for almost the last 100 years, for better or for worse been the trendsetter for this country. Whatever it is, it either starts or takes off in California before spreading to the rest of the county and often the rest of the world. Be it…