BJORK@SU-SCORE.ARPA (Steven Bjork) (03/31/85)
SP Peninsula branch news With the coming merger (or breakup!) of the SP, there have been a number of changes in traffic patterns on the Peninsula branch. The most notable one has been the revival of container traffic to the San Francisco waterfront. In the late 60's, Oakland (across the bay) built a large facility to handle containerized cargo. This facility was responsible for the near complete decline of (rail) traffic to the SF waterfront. Mayor Feinstein (of SF) has attempted to reverse this trend by rebuilding a rail connection with the SP to handle the large (80 foot) container flats right up to the waterfront. Oakland is cursed with having to *truck* containers from the dock to the railroad.... An article in the SF Chronicle claims that the SF port can handle containers of up to 30 tons, something that the Oakland port can't, due to having to truck the containers to/from the rails. Having lived on the peninsula for 20 years, I have enjoyed watching this revival of rail traffic taking place. Unfortunately this trend is a minor one, currently the commuter service is under attack from the state money people as a 'boondoggle'. In the spirit of BART, a rail system designed by non-rail people, the new cars that have been purchased by Caltrans (the state entity taking over the commuter buisness from SP) are under attack even before being placed into service. The new cars will run push-pull (with engine controls in the end car) allowing (in theory) faster turnaround times at terminals. BN has run a similar service out of Chicago for (?) many years using the same type of push-pull equipment. But, due to the number of grade crossings on the (SP) line, the number of accidents has been increasing to the point that SP has seen fit to send their engineers out to the local schools driver education classes in order to try to reduce this trend... I have heard a rumor of a lawsuit to prevent the 'backwards' running of trains (with locomotive pushing) due to fears that the cars could not stand up to the impact of a collision the way a multi-ton locomotive could. Less serious but noticable to commuters is the lack of a 'shelf' along the windows that exists in the current cars. This is a convenient place for setting your ciggarettes, beer, coffee, or whatever. This, also, will possibly be taken care of (for a price, of course). Yet another 'oops' is the height of the steps in the cars from the station platforms. When SP bought their cars they chose to modify the steps to lower them, thus avoiding costly station work along the entire line. Caltrans has chosen to use stock steps, and rebuild the stations... I have enjoyed watching the SP's commuter line. The variety and age of the equipment is astonishing (the 'Harriman' coaches are from the 20's!) and I can only praise the operating personnel for their performance. From a fan's viewpoint, the GP9's, SD9's, SDP45's, and GP40P's have become familiar sights with their consists of bi-levels and Harrimans. Anyways, back to work... --Steve -------