Wednesday, December 7, 2022

FrontRunner Double-tracking and electrification

I've generally been negative regarding FrontRunner double-tracking and electrification. Partially because for most of my riding life, it's been an hourly commuter rail with PnR access. Not real useful for those living the car-free or car-less lifestyle. More recently I realized what double-tracking and electrification would do: Transform FrontRunner into something much more like the PATH train. Viz: an electrified heavy-rail system with (potentially) 15 frequencies. FrontRunner was built on the cheap (not a criticism), including a lot of single track, so in many segments the only place two trains can pass each other is at stations. So one train has to wait for the other, so if one train is late, the other train is made late. It's also a diesel train, so the amount of torque it can produce is limited, and hence how fast it can accelerate. (Diesel trains are great for long distances--for cheaper than stringing catenary for the whole distance, and rolling-friction efficiency of trains aside, a better option than carrying batteries the whole way). FrontRunner is also the only way the whole Wasatch Front can be on one train system. TRAX is great, but it's light rail, which means it can't share track with freight trains, which means it's limited to being on it's own ROW. (TRAX does some 'time separation', which is why the blue line will never have an 'after hours' train home for people who want to drink and not-drive.)




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