Western Railroad Discussion > Debacle in Burlingame for Caltrain

I was passing by the Burlingame Caltrain station on the way home today and there was a significant amount of emergency equipment and activity. Flipping on the scanner and listening to the Caltrain dispatchers revealed that there are power lines down on or near the tracks. Apparently there was a thought that several nearby trees and the crossing gates were potentially live. Trains were backing up on both sides and being held at Broadway and Millbrae to the north, based on what I saw. Not a good evening to be a commuter on the Peninsula.

Sean

Electric trains on Caltrain are coming sooner than we thought.

You didn't hear it from me, but what I heard initially was that power lines were down and laying over the tracks at Burlingame, with a possible death of a worker at the site of the new station construction.
The story I was told from an inside source at Caltrain was that an intoxicated trespasser stumbled, fell, and passed out close to a fence and eucalyptus tree that were seen to be smoking. These were two separate situations that just happened to occur in a close proximity.
The onlooker thought that the trespasser fell against the fence and was electrocuted. Not the case!
There were no power lines down over the tracks, but there was at least one light pole, a fence, and a tree that had 2000KVA running through them and PG&E found other things live as well.
The problem stemmed from when the temporary fence was installed for the station rebuild project. A metal stake driven into the ground to support the fence had pierced the conduit of some HV lines underground. The tree roots grew into the void making contact with all three items, thus completing the circuit. Hence the smoking tree and fence condition.
Once rail traffic was allowed to move there was a 30mph slow order in effect through the area and an order not to stop under any circumstances.
The debacle delayed trains upwards of 2 hours across the system.