Pretty much all west coast rolling stock is 'gigantic' -- they're all double height. This size rolling stock can be found as far east as Chicago -- the Amtrak long distance services are all this size (you missed the Coast Starlight service -- one train a day each way between LA and Seattle). The cars are very comfortable to ride in, they're roomy with plenty of space to walk around. Freight is also this size with containers usually being double stacked. Trains aren't very fast, they're restricted to a maximum of 79mph, but there is some hope that eventually we'll get a high speed service. This is the 'new' San Jose station, BTW -- the original was further downtown.
As of today, Caltrain has received funding to completely electrify the line. Construction is slated for next week. The will be using new Stadler KISS emus, which are the same used as on the Zurich S-Bahn.
You should come back for another visit. Caltrain has electrified their tracks and bought a fleet of Stadler KISS train sets. Caltrain's Stadler train sets are testing now and will be starting passenger service in fall 2024.
As I am a man born, bred, raised and residing in Melbourne, Australia, the reason why these trains here in this video appear larger, is because as seen, the platforms are at ground level. The actual heights of Amtrak's Superliner, etc, bi - level carriages are roughly just a little higher than the suburban electric and InterUrban electric double deck trains in metropolitan Sydney and the Central Coast, Blue Mountains & Illawarra/South Coast NSW areas. Still a great video here to appreciate.
+Louis Hypothetical I find that ad on the tram at 7:30 even worse. It's insanely ugly to look at, and those poor passengers inside it must feel like travelling in a dark box.
Luftschlange I think what they do is put tiny holes in the advert across windows so that you can look out but not look in, I've been on buses before that do that but it does make it a little bit darker inside.
Please go to Australia one day, make sure to go to Sydney and Melbourne if you do. Melbourne has lots of trams, and Sydney runs double decker suburban trains.
HI there, I am making a compilation video of light rail but have not visited this system. May I use your footage for the video? I will make sure to give you the credit. Thanks ~Tim
I always wonder what's the actual number of passangers in these commuter train services in the USA. I mean, when I see such pictures there's always a huge double-decker train with many cars, but platforms seem to be rather quiet and empty. What's your experience with Caltrain?
+trupman I think it depends on where you are in the US. In the New York City area, I would say that commuter railways like Long Island Rail Road and Metro North have comparable usage to London's commuter trains. On the west coast, however, the railway system is more like a bad joke. The infrastructure and rolling stock is hopelessly outdated, trains are sluggish, heavy, and noisy. Whenever I've seen an Amtrak train, there weren't many passengers around. Caltrain has higher utilization. But the experience riding it still feels more like you're in the wild west. This is really ironic, considering that its route runs straight through Silicon Valley, with all those modern tech companies.
+trupman Caltrain can get quite crowded because its such an awful route to drive. The heavy rail service (Metrolink) around LA is more hit and miss -- it can get quite crowded towards downtown LA. Amtrack routes such as the Pacific Surfliner are quite heavily used and the San Joqauin service from Oakland to Bakersfield is one of the most used medium distance routes in the US.
+Martin Usher - Crowded can mean different things in different cultures I guess :)) Does it mean that all seats are occupied and people have to travel standing as well?
Caltrain carries about 60,000 weekday passengers between Sf and San Jose (Gilroy, about 25 miles south of San Jose at rush hours is the final stop). It is bursting at the seams with riders. This video was filmed on a Sunday.
Great video, but one thing that I would like to point out is that although they don't in the video, those trains can accelerate a lot faster than that, they didn't in the video because they had to go through those tight turns and switches to leave the station. Also, you might think that that the infrastructure there is bad,based on what you said about the cars being old and clunky, but beside Chicago, this is the only commuter line that still uses those passenger cars, and Chicago uses them because they NEED that extra capacity that those cars have, Metra is one of the busiest commuter lines in the country. Amtrak's cars are actually fairly new and pretty good. Also, the passenger services in California are overall pretty bad just because of how populated it is, and the rail lines are designed for freight traffic.
+ExcessMean You got a fair point about the switches the train had to go through in the video, thus, not accelerating as quickly as it could have. Indeed, as I had replied to a previous comment, Caltrain is busier than the video might suggest. But even then, these trains and cars are massive and noisy. Take for example the S-Bahn Zurich, which is a commuter rail network also operating mostly trains with double-storey coaches, but the system is clean, fast, and efficient. Check out, for example th-cam.com/video/BlAlF0B6hic/w-d-xo.html for an impression.
Caltrain has survived (the service was originally run by Southern Pacific and the line itself goes back to the 1880's) for years without adequate or dedicated funding. This line will eventually serve both Caltrain and Cal High Speed Rail as a blended system between SJ and SF. As part of the Prop A bonds passed by the voters in 2008 (that created hi speed rail) improvements will be made to the infrastructure and the line electrified which should produce speedier acceleration and more frequent runs on the peninsula. You have to remember that Calif has been "car country" for decades, state and federal transit money has been disproportionate to that of auto infrastructure and most people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties would rather drive. Both counties were not part of the original BART system in the 60's - 70's when BART was built, otherwise those counties residents and commuters would have a much better alternative than the slow and lumbering Caltrain - which also has an enormous amount of suicides every year because their trackways are at grade level and not fenced off in many locations. Auto congestion on the peninsula and SJ has become legendary.
I couldn’t agree more. Whenever I have friends over from Europe, they can only shake their heads when they look at the Bay Area’s transport infrastructure.
Pretty much all west coast rolling stock is 'gigantic' -- they're all double height. This size rolling stock can be found as far east as Chicago -- the Amtrak long distance services are all this size (you missed the Coast Starlight service -- one train a day each way between LA and Seattle). The cars are very comfortable to ride in, they're roomy with plenty of space to walk around. Freight is also this size with containers usually being double stacked. Trains aren't very fast, they're restricted to a maximum of 79mph, but there is some hope that eventually we'll get a high speed service.
This is the 'new' San Jose station, BTW -- the original was further downtown.
As of today, Caltrain has received funding to completely electrify the line. Construction is slated for next week. The will be using new Stadler
KISS emus, which are the same used as on the Zurich S-Bahn.
You should come back for another visit.
Caltrain has electrified their tracks and bought a fleet of Stadler KISS train sets.
Caltrain's Stadler train sets are testing now and will be starting passenger service in fall 2024.
those trains look enormous compared to what we have here in Australia
As I am a man born, bred, raised and residing in Melbourne, Australia, the reason why these trains here in this video appear larger, is because as seen, the platforms are at ground level. The actual heights of Amtrak's Superliner, etc, bi - level carriages are roughly just a little higher than the suburban electric and InterUrban electric double deck trains in metropolitan Sydney and the Central Coast, Blue Mountains & Illawarra/South Coast NSW areas. Still a great video here to appreciate.
I find that Zootopia advert quite looming on such a high train, that must have taken a lot of painting
Seen the movie yesterday, it was pretty good
+Louis Hypothetical I find that ad on the tram at 7:30 even worse. It's insanely ugly to look at, and those poor passengers inside it must feel like travelling in a dark box.
+Louis Hypothetical It wasn't painted on, it is a wrap.
Luftschlange I think what they do is put tiny holes in the advert across windows so that you can look out but not look in, I've been on buses before that do that but it does make it a little bit darker inside.
@@Luftschlange That person at the crosswalk was sorta weird at 7:30 ...
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Please go to Australia one day, make sure to go to Sydney and Melbourne if you do. Melbourne has lots of trams, and Sydney runs double decker suburban trains.
6:13 haha SoCal's Metrolink Bombardiers.
Caltrain bought them to deal with overcrowding on their trains.
Oh no, Capitol Corridor... In about 85 years we might see Katniss... Run away!
HI there, I am making a compilation video of light rail but have not visited this system. May I use your footage for the video? I will make sure to give you the credit. Thanks ~Tim
I always wonder what's the actual number of passangers in these commuter train services in the USA. I mean, when I see such pictures there's always a huge double-decker train with many cars, but platforms seem to be rather quiet and empty. What's your experience with Caltrain?
+trupman I think it depends on where you are in the US. In the New York City area, I would say that commuter railways like Long Island Rail Road and Metro North have comparable usage to London's commuter trains. On the west coast, however, the railway system is more like a bad joke. The infrastructure and rolling stock is hopelessly outdated, trains are sluggish, heavy, and noisy. Whenever I've seen an Amtrak train, there weren't many passengers around. Caltrain has higher utilization. But the experience riding it still feels more like you're in the wild west. This is really ironic, considering that its route runs straight through Silicon Valley, with all those modern tech companies.
+trupman The rolling stock looks similar to what Metra uses in Chicago. When I was there in Sept 2015 it seemed to be quite popular.
+trupman Caltrain can get quite crowded because its such an awful route to drive. The heavy rail service (Metrolink) around LA is more hit and miss -- it can get quite crowded towards downtown LA. Amtrack routes such as the Pacific Surfliner are quite heavily used and the San Joqauin service from Oakland to Bakersfield is one of the most used medium distance routes in the US.
+Martin Usher - Crowded can mean different things in different cultures I guess :)) Does it mean that all seats are occupied and people have to travel standing as well?
Caltrain carries about 60,000 weekday passengers between Sf and San Jose (Gilroy, about 25 miles south of San Jose at rush hours is the final stop). It is bursting at the seams with riders. This video was filmed on a Sunday.
Great video, but one thing that I would like to point out is that although they don't in the video, those trains can accelerate a lot faster than that, they didn't in the video because they had to go through those tight turns and switches to leave the station. Also, you might think that that the infrastructure there is bad,based on what you said about the cars being old and clunky, but beside Chicago, this is the only commuter line that still uses those passenger cars, and Chicago uses them because they NEED that extra capacity that those cars have, Metra is one of the busiest commuter lines in the country. Amtrak's cars are actually fairly new and pretty good. Also, the passenger services in California are overall pretty bad just because of how populated it is, and the rail lines are designed for freight traffic.
+ExcessMean You got a fair point about the switches the train had to go through in the video, thus, not accelerating as quickly as it could have. Indeed, as I had replied to a previous comment, Caltrain is busier than the video might suggest. But even then, these trains and cars are massive and noisy. Take for example the S-Bahn Zurich, which is a commuter rail network also operating mostly trains with double-storey coaches, but the system is clean, fast, and efficient. Check out, for example th-cam.com/video/BlAlF0B6hic/w-d-xo.html for an impression.
+ExcessMean Yeah it is a shame, since the freeway (101), which runs mostly in parallel is hopelessly congested.
Caltrain has survived (the service was originally run by Southern Pacific and the line itself goes back to the 1880's) for years without adequate or dedicated funding. This line will eventually serve both Caltrain and Cal High Speed Rail as a blended system between SJ and SF. As part of the Prop A bonds passed by the voters in 2008 (that created hi speed rail) improvements will be made to the infrastructure and the line electrified which should produce speedier acceleration and more frequent runs on the peninsula. You have to remember that Calif has been "car country" for decades, state and federal transit money has been disproportionate to that of auto infrastructure and most people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties would rather drive. Both counties were not part of the original BART system in the 60's - 70's when BART was built, otherwise those counties residents and commuters would have a much better alternative than the slow and lumbering Caltrain - which also has an enormous amount of suicides every year because their trackways are at grade level and not fenced off in many locations. Auto congestion on the peninsula and SJ has become legendary.
I couldn’t agree more. Whenever I have friends over from Europe, they can only shake their heads when they look at the Bay Area’s transport infrastructure.
I'm just hoping that perhaps better track layout can happen so you don't have ~1 hour between SJ and SF with CAHSR. But yeah, good video ^_^
Dear san Jose thingy:Buy 100 more trains!
1:28 zootopia!