Passenger Trains > Coaster Closure

Coaster closuer will start on Sep 10th and 11th Oct 8th and 9th Oct 15th and 16th and Oct 22nd and 23rd. Due to bridge culvert anf track replacement work. North County Transit District will discontinue all trains service starting with Amrtak's Pacific Surfliner #796 at Oceanside on late friday and will continue service with first southbound Coaster commuter train on monday morning. Per NCTD website.  

That's a good way to drive away lots of passengers.  For people to use it, it has to be reliable.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> That's a good way to drive away lots of
> passengers.  For people to use it, it has to be
> reliable.

They're open for the passengers the Coaster folks are concerned about, the Monday - Friday Commuters.

True.  The weekend people don't count.  

So how would you replace a bridge on a single track RR line?
Maybe pay to build a second main track first, then repair the old bridge?
Build a shoo-fly?
Really, there were ways, but "modern" construction practices and environmental restrictions can't do it.
 

Kind of hard to replace a bridge under traffic conditions. Watch that first jump, it's a real head banger.


CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> That's a good way to drive away lots of
> passengers.  For people to use it, it has to be
> reliable.

Work in the wee hours of the morning?  

No, can't do that.  The NIMBYs will complain about the noise and they'll be cranky from not getting any sleep.  

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Work in the wee hours of the morning?  
>
> No, can't do that.  The NIMBYs will complain
> about the noise and they'll be cranky from not
> getting any sleep.  

So in your opinion they should only be allowed 4 hour work windows? Lets see how much MAJOR work you can do in 4 hours.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> Work in the wee hours of the morning?  
>
> No, can't do that.  The NIMBYs will complain
> about the noise and they'll be cranky from not
> getting any sleep.

I see night work window on the highways very frequently, and those concrete grinders create lots of dust, not to mention annoying noise.

Let's not mince words here. NIMBYs are biased. America hates trains.

I'm sure paying overtime to workers might be a factor, too, in preferring daytime work windows. Some modes of transportation get more funding than others, and I suspect train hate leads to more amateur accounting and penny pinching on the train side of things. Just speculating, of course.

jst3751 Wrote:
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> So in your opinion they should only be allowed 4
> hour work windows? Lets see how much MAJOR work
> you can do in 4 hours.

More like 6 or more hours if you annulled some of the late, lightly patronized trains.  And a lot can be done in 6 hours if you have everything on site and pre-assembled, ready for installation.  Lots of manpower also helps.  In many, many cases It CAN be done.  The stumbling block is the lack of WILL to do it that way.  

 

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
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> jst3751 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > So in your opinion they should only be allowed
> 4
> > hour work windows? Lets see how much MAJOR work
> > you can do in 4 hours.
>
> More like 6 or more hours if you annulled some of
> the late, lightly patronized trains.  And a lot
> can be done in 6 hours if you have everything on
> site and pre-assembled, ready for installation.
>  Lots of manpower also helps.  In many, many
> cases It CAN be done.  The stumbling block is the
> lack of WILL to do it that way.  
>
>  

1) And how will those annuled trains get into position that they are required to be in the next morning?
2) Not sure if you have ever watched all the different types of track work that take place, but some of them take time to setup and put away. For example, a ballast cleaner. Takes time to get the machine setup and started. Then you have to dump ballast behind it, then the ballast groomers have to have their dance.

For example, most of the freeway repair/replacement project on the 60 freeway between 57-605 was done during overnight hours. However, 4 sections were so bad that to do those 4 sections during overnight hours would have taken 49 nights, 7 PM to 5 AM. 490 hours. However, buy doing those 4 sections the entire section at a time by closing down those lanes for 54 hours, it was accomplished in 4 weekends. 216 hours.