Caltrain Hits, Kills Person On Tracks At Main Street Crossing

The fatal crash occurred at 3:59 p.m. [Wednesday, December 5, 2018] when a person was struck by the train at the busy crossing in Redwood City.

This is at least the 312th, yes 312th, fatality since 1995 when Caltrain and the nascent Sacramento-based California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) publicly agreed to use Caltrain tracks for future, unapproved-until 2008 fraudulent ballot measure for HSR was approved by voters. The 1864 Civil War era Caltrain trackway must be replaced asap by grade-separated BART to reduce killings, save delays, and reduce other street-level accidents. Although BART has its issues--being addressed now by its board, the sooner outdated, street level Caltrain, the Killtrain (wehether by suicide or accident) that flies through the most dense part of the Bay Area at 70 mph, 110 mph for future HSR, the sooner lives will be saved. 

Like the Las Vegas-Victorville (eventually L.A.) privately-funded HSR that will stop near the new Raiders stadium, HSR would be better off going from San Jose to Oakland's planned new stadium rather than up the peninsula. For about the same cost of modifying Caltrain and HSR to get to, and tunnel in SF, to the TBT, (without the additional $Bil's to go under the Bay to Oakland), BART's cost to close the last 30 mile gap from the future Santa CLara station to Millbraie will be far more beneficial to the Bay Area travelers and commuters, about $12 Billions total:grade separeations, electrification, new cars, eminent domain, PTC, (saving current Caltrain Administration $ and odd rail maintenance, etc. 

When Senator Jerry Hill is FINALLY ut of office, the key blocker to BART's loop around the Bay since his days in San Mateo politics, the way should be clear and self-evident to finish the two-way huge capacity of BART Around The Bay. Its a no-brainer...and saves lives, anguish, sadness. Caltrain is a taxpayer-subsidized, government owned and operated suicide-killing machine inappriopriate for the Bay Area, but Democrats have to get past their deadly ends-justify-the means HSR (ends)-Caltrain trackway (means))methodology. And "Undaunted" Congressperson Jackie Speier wants to limit or ban guns, yet her name is emblazoned on a Caltrain killing machine Engine number 925. Seems hypocritidal. 

About half the deaths to date of Democrat-schmoozing Jim Jones' Jonestown deadly cult...but getting there,, about one a month.

Impact of S.F. Bay Area's Regional Measure 3 -Bridge Tolls Increase

The impact of the passage of the Bay Area's MTC-sponsored Regional Measure 3 state bridge tolls in June 2016 is not to increase the Bay's bridges or their capacity.  "RM3"will fund, though not completely, projects for specific transit and highway capital "improvements" sold to voters to supposedly "ease" traffic congestion.

Among the transit items are to further fund the BART tunnel into San Jose's downtown Transit Hub station, then to Santa Clara near the Santa Clara University Caltrain station.

That will leave about 30 miles to finally close the BART Around The Bay loop that will create the 2-direction, doubling of BART capacity and redundant capability for BART users to reach their destination station.

This will only happen if/when the deadly suicide and accident-prone Caltrain trackway is replaced by BART for this final 30 miles.

Caltrain trackway death count has reached about 306 dead (latest Burlingame, Palo Alto-California Avenue, Sunnyvale-Mary Avenue) since the Peninsula and South Bay Democrat political machine decided to reveal in 1995 to reserve the Caltrain trackway only for a future High Speed Rail (as Quentin Kopp, plaintiff, entitles it: "Low Speed Rail" because the HSR will not reach anywhere near high speed from Gilroy to San Francisco). 

Later in 2018 the HSR EIR will be released.  The cunning Democrat machine has ensured that supportive city mayors in most Peninsula cities in the right-of-way were elected in 2016, Mayor Liz Kniss in Palo Alto, Lenny Seigel in Mountain View, Kirsten Keith in Menlo Park, Sam Liccardo in San Jose, etc.

More to come...

My Comment in the ABC News (Fresno, L.A.) reporting (circa Feb. 1, 2018)  of Calif. State Senators' Patterson and Beall's successful request to the legislature to audit (again) the CHSRA boondoggle follows:

Actually, the mentioned $65-$68B cost is only the CHSRA (disinformation amount to confuse drive-by superficial news coverage) number used for HSR from Bakersfield to San Jose. 

As noted, the original 2008 Prop. 1A $40B amount was a complete voter's sucker fraud, as usual for most rail projects.

The previous $98B estimate was to LA (Lancaster) before the exponential cost of going *through* the Tehachapi's, now is up to an unknown huge amount.  The published $68B amount does *not* include SF Bay Area's deadly and capability limited SJ-to-SF Caltrain HSR "upgrade", nor the $2B-3B *estimated* tunneling to SF's new Transbay downtown skyscraper terminal. 
The monies for this horrible fraudulent HSR boondoggle could be better used for Ca's safety net needs for children, seniors, disabled, mentally ill, and education K-12, UC and CSU tuition reduction, etc etc. 

For transportation, finishing electrified, grade separated BART around the SF Bay is better spent, moves more people, with more frequency, safer, quieter, and zero cross-traffic congestion at no more than the $12B current HSR cost.  Future cost diversions to SoCal's Coaster and Metro systems could save lives and speed train and eliminated cross traffic congestion delays and pollution with more separated grade crossings.  

Improving and expanding CA's *real* mass (moves tens of millions daily) road transportation system and safety (where possible) is also a better use of tax/bond dollars than the limited number of HSR construction and operations workers, HSR riders, and very limited HSR destinations. 

Buyout of existing Toll Roads and toll lanes to stop exorbitant per mile fees for SOVs and other users that can exceed by well 20 times the average less-than $.05/mile CA state motor vehicle fees and taxes that the average car, truck motorist pays on non-toll roads is a better use of HSR funds.
Using diverted planned HSR funds to improve commerce, holiday, work/trade vehicles, buses, vans, passenger cars, heavy utility and trade corridors for cargo trucks, emergency vehicles, and all other of millions of unionized and non-union road users of all driving ages that would fund these.
Others suggest that wasting of well over $100B (some estimates of HSR from San Diego to Sacramento would actually exceed $300B) deprives many of vital and urgent "safety net" needy of critical, basic General Fund dollars.  The annual over $700 millions of dollars just for the current $12B in HSR bonds would longer pay only for their interest, not to mention the initial capital cost, operating cost, and 23% expected millions in tax cost from local train station high density TOD project development taxes.

All this waste, just because Jerry Brown says "I like trains" since he rode on one in his youth over 70 years ago and apparently never had enough of his toy train set growing up.  Incredible!

Road references are copied to my California-oriented "Freemotorist" blog.

Subscriber, member of American Highway Users Alliance and National Motorist Association Foundation, Silicon Valley Electric Vehicle Association, The Newspaper, Mass Transit magazines, and board member of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, and other groups.

Caltrain electrification is a shame and shill for California's High Speed Rail wasteful boondoggle.  What's worse is that Caltrain/HSR continues to block completion of BART Around The Bay which will serve far more people as a true "Mass Transit" system than a long-since outdated, congesting, pollution-causing, dangerous street-level 55-70mph "unstoppable" million-pound trainset.

Local Democrat politicians and "leaders", such as Silicon Valley Leadership Group's public policy CEO, Democrat Carl Guardino and others perpetrated an untruthful story to Truimp's Washington D.C. Department of Transportation Director, Elaine Chao, that somehow Caltrain Electrification is a separate project from High-Speed Rail.

In fact, since 1995 they have been unified projects, as confirmed by CHSRA's Chairman Dan Richard and S.F. Mayor Ed Lee.  Indeed, when I joined the pro-Caltrain predecessor advocacy group on October 6, 1982, yes 1982, at a kickoff meeting at the behest of then County Supervisors Susanne Wilson and Rail Zealot-at -any-cost-to-taxpayers Rod Diridon, another advocate engaged me in a conversation about the then SP, later Caltrain, Peninsula Corridor being for high-speed rail such as exists in Japan (Tokyo - Osaka route).  Apparently, Diridon had become smitten with HSR upon a visit there.

It is a real shame that all Democrat-led San Jose and Peninsula cities (aka Silicon Valley) and voters allow themselves, to their detriment, to act as dumbbell "suburbs" to narcissistic San Francisco politicos who don't care about their lower Peninsulas residents and communities' well-being, safety, and quality-of-life.

The release of Facebook's $1M Dumbarton Corridor study plus urban planning's SPUR suggestion to extend Caltrain/HSR from SF to Oakland with a new tunnel under the Bay validates my long-time asserting that the cost to extend BART around the Bay the final 30 miles to Millbrae, which will tap every city that any resurrected Dumbarton rail project will "serve", will be the same or less than the ultimate Caltrain/HSR configuration--and serve and carry far more people ("masses"), employ more directly and indirectly, electrified, frequently, safer, and with the bonus of higher farebox recovery.

So, where do we go from here?  I suggest that our Central Valley HSR opponents, legislators, Congressmen, and federal DOT Director and staff demand that any future release of tax monies to Caltrain/HSR require an alternative analysis to study a few configurations of BART 30 miles from San Jose to Millbrae, replacing Caltrain/HSR tracks with BART's, plus one for the occasional freight train, to close the long-planned "loop" and thus create a two-way BART system to not only serve regular one-way commutes, but also provide reliable redundancy station access from the other direction in case of track, equipment, medical or protest shutdown obstructions.

Let our HSR opposing Congresspersons know about this!

SF Warriors Arena would be better served by BART Around the Bay than by keeping deadly, outdated Caltrain.

It is time to start planning to extend BART down the Peninsula to future Santa Clara station to complete the BART Around The Bay dual (two-way) loop to be able to collect and distribute riders to the new arena, University, downtowns, shopping (Hillsdale, Newpark, Stanford, Southland, SF Market-Union, etc) travel facility and other Bay Area venues with the most efficient, safer, frequent, Zero-congestion heavy rail system that has proven its worth, 70% farebox recovery--highest of any transit system in the Bay Area. To save big $, BART should replace outdated, Deadly Caltrain (18 killed by Caltrain this year, twice BART deaths (suicides) and no car-train accidents. By replacing the Caltrain Killtrain, and keeping a separate freight single track, Caltrain excess land is freed up for sale in SF (Mission Bay) and elsewhere to help pay for BART extension down the Peninsula.BART's average ridership exceeds 435,000/day vs deadly Caltrain's (Democrats placeholder for future HSR) meager 60,000/day and that requires transfer delays at each end, unlike BART's homogeneous, integrated,unified system. Last year's Warrior celebration had BART carrying over 550,000 riders--without even the Peninsula extension. 775 new BART cars are coming starting in 2017, too.

More blogging on BAB, ACE, and the SF Peninsula Corridor highest use - BART

More blogging about if CAHSR cannot be stopped, then HSR should use the SJRRA/ACE corridor to reach the Bay Area, SJ and SF via the East Bay Capitol Corridor/Amtrak trackway, leaving the Peninsula Corridor to replace the 1864 Civil War era deadly street level Caltrain trackway to far more efficient, safe, non-congesting, high-capacity, dual directional, effective BART to connect the final 30 miles from Millbrae to Santa Clara with a united consensus to really move people via backbone, integrated, one-seat, single (but bidirectional redundancy to reach all points around the Bay in case of a track incident). Amtrak does not use the Peninsula Corridor. HSR need not as well to SF.

Since BART is already in core Downtown SF and coming to core SJ, and 15 miles down the Peninsula, it only makes tax, transit, and TDM sense to finish BART's loop around the Bay, even before consideration of a second transbay tube, new SF subways (SF Supervisor Weiner's Sept 2015 proposals) --for about the same cost as "upgrading" Caltrain for HSR and special HSR SF tunnels, and Dumbarton Rail resurrection within the pristine Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge in the southern SF Bay. If HSR's unconstitutional 2008 Ballot Prop 1A, can be revoted for regional rail needs, then finishing the BART bidirectional loop around the Bay integrating the major Bay Area cities, shopping malls, universities, entertainment venues, and airports with a one-seat, safer, more frequent, high-capacity, more reliable Bay area non-stop access redundancy near the backbone BART railway and TOD projects. Posted to CHSRA - Caltrain blog.

If HSR cannot be stopped, then best to run HSR on ACE-SJRRA tracks. Here's why...

If HSR cannot be stopped and bond funding re-allocated to regional projects instead of destroying farm and ranchlands, and wasting funds competing with at least tax and fee-paying 5 LA-SF intercity private coach companies--and similarly airlines, then the best route for HSR into the Bay Area, and San Jose, is via the ACE and SJ trackway both due to heavier population centers enroute, Livermore, Pleasanton, etc (not Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Lodi, Galt, etc,). This would be consistent with Amtrak which does not go from SJ to the SF dead-end track. Amtrak relies on local transit and rail BART and deadly, outdated, street-level Caltrain. 227 people have been killed in accidents or easy-access suicides since the CHSRA and Democrat political establishment thought to use Caltrain's Peninsula Corridor tracks from SJ to SF deadend in 1995. At least 16 have died on Caltrain-HSR tracks in this most dense Bay Area Peninsula Corridor this year alone--with more to come as regularly as the months arrive on our calendar. With HSR using ACE-SJRRA tracks instead to the Bay Area, then, over the next 15 -20 years BART can finally complete the long-envisioned, extraordinarily bi-directional, high (double current) capacity, safe Bay Area backbone rail loop at "minimal" cost ~$13 Billion, but totally grade-separated making suicides more difficult and vehicular accidents impossible--thus reducing rider delays and increasing efficiency and likely farebox recovery up from BART's current 70% farebox rate.

 There are so many advantages to running HSR on ACE/SJRRA tracks to Oakland (Jerry Brown's hometown) and San Jose/Silicon Valley, rather than uniquely through new environment-destroying Pacheco Pass tunnels and UNP-owned tracks into SJ then deadending in SF. Coming via ACE & SJRRA tracks to Richmond/Oakland could be an economic boon to these cities (example: Oakland's proposed Coliseum City complex and venues)while providing a straight trackway to Sacramento, again, though the proven heavily-traveled I-80 (Capitol Corridor trackway)corridor.

This dual concept (HSR via ACE+SJRRA, complete, one-seat, integrated, bidirectional, electrified, ...) Bart Around The Bay Loop would do more to reduce ICE automobile congestion-induced GHG/Carbon emissions while boosting economic vitality along all corridors while reducing congestion thus restoring highway capacity for vehicular long or very short distance mobility.

 This is really a no-brainer to maximize rail and motorist, general fund, highway tax and fees, cap-and-trade dollar use.
From a legacy standpoint for the Governor's Brown, son Jerry would be completing one of his father's, Pat, most profound public service projects --BART Around The Bay in which Pat Brown was governor in 1962 at the initial BART groundbreaking ceremony--with LBJ!