@NikonF5user Because California has no problems itself, and isn't a cesspit...... The left not calling itself out on it's own problems, is why the world is in the state that it is
I rode it once. Great experience. Seems it's led to a sizeable increase in Caltrain ridership. Regardless of the sentimental value the old diesels have, that is unquestionably a huge positive. More of this, California!
Being from the Chicago area, I’m super nostalgic for gallery cars…… but yeah their time has definitely come and gone. I really wish we could have these trains here.
@ correct. But I have mixed feelings towards that as Metra actually owns those tracks. They should be electrifying them the right way. But i guess it’s the next best thing
Palo Alto is 2nd busiest due in part to Stanford University students, faculty, and employees who take Caltrain. Stanford runs near continuous busses on loops from the station to campus. This system is also somewhat unique in the US in that it has nearly equal patronage going both north from San Jose and south from SF at commute times. Most other systems are more uni-directional.
I definitely would like to see more U.S. commuter rail systems modernize with European EMU equipment like these KISS units and better frequencies all day every day. And It has so much benefit riders, the communities these systems serve and the environment alike.
What is needed more is new lines to unserved places, especially in California. The forecasted 120billion+ cost for hsr could be spent expanding slower speed lines to essentially every city across the state.. realistically 125mph is plenty to compete with cars, and can be achieved with diesel though as is proved by calmod electric can be done after the fact if the need arises.
CAHSR funding was approved via a statewide voter referendum. It is not just illegal but against California’s Constitution to use those funds for anything other than CAHSR. And since that money was approved by voters in the entire state specifically for CAHSR, if any politician tried to raid that budget for anything else the voters would tear them apart. And this in addition to being sued out of existence for trying to do an unconstitutional budget transaction.
Modern American EMU trains are just as good as the European models; the manufacturers are so multinational these days it’s often the same companies, just using different design styles. I’m getting tired of people acting as if these Stadler units are the only such units on the market
One thing I love about KISS versus Gallery on Caltrain is the access to the second deck. In the old gallery, you had to go up spiraling stairs that were just wide enough for a person, and they were steep. The new KISS makes it much easier to get there without any issues.
Walter, the city of New York has electric commuter rail (the Long Island Railroad), and electric rail in the Northeast Corridor that the LIRR's a part of, so no, this really _isn't_ new or revolutionary in the United States (please try to remember, the United States and Canada are larger than Europe, Scandinavia, or Southeast Asia, and also that a lot of areas of the United States and Canada are _rural_ ones that require that you have a car, truck, or van to get around.) Due to the large size of each country, planes took off more than trains did, and people in the United States & Canada are used to driving long distances from place to place (which is why the 'road trip' became a part of U.S. and Canadian culture.) Trains are _not_ going to be easy to build or accept, and it will take a lot of time to accomplish that.
Indeed, this very model KISS train set should also be (in my opinion!) used on regional high-speed operations in Utah and Colorado. They could be upgraded to run as fast as 200 km/h (124 mph) on a new route in Utah from Brigham City south to Spanish Folk on the I-15 corridor and on a new route in Colorado from Fort Collins south to Pueblo on the I-25 corridor.
More EMUs are super great and we need many more of them, but more electric express/intercity locomotives are also something american railroads must invest in! Modern electric locomotives with European-style traction control and electronics can have performance reaching, if not at, EMU performance, which is perfect for limited-stop, regional express, long distance, sleeper, and select high speed services.
This is great to see. With our current federal government essentially telling us that Americans cannot have anything good like this, I fear this will continue to be the exception for the foreseeable future. Ugh.
But seriously, the political will is changing in the Lehigh Valley with more people coming from New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. NJ Transit and the MTA should seriously consider the Statler cars as well.
NJT and MTA already have their preferred suppliers, who make very good trains. MTA recently replaced large portions of their heavy rail fleet with new single level EMUs, and NJT have bilevel EMUs on order with Alstom based on the existing Bombardier Multilevel design, which will be compatible with their existing bilevel fleet. Stadler is not a miraculous outlier, and only one of several companies attempting to break into or renew footholds in the American market.
I know California high speed rail has been a development hell poster child but man do I wish they pull through. (And happily, they are progressing. as slow at it is, they definitely are moving along as I drive by every few weeks) I love driving but sometimes, I don’t feel like cannonballing it from SF to LA. Or Tesla can get their FSD to be actually FSD. Whichever will come first.
Every December, Caltrain runs a festive Holiday Train, with fun lighting on the sides of the gallery cars. AFAIK the lights are permanently fixed into those cars because they're just stored in the 4th Street depot all year long with the lights attached, and this year's Holiday Train still used that train set despite being the line being fully electric after September! Not sure if they plan to change that for 2025 or not.
@@firstlast1932 I looked at some photos from 2024's Holiday Train and they also have lights on the locomotive! So probably they should just move the whole setup to the EMUs, not sure why they didn't do it for 2024 but could understand if they had resource/logistical constraints. Hopefully they get that sorted out before 2025's run.
The first time I rode that line was before Caltrain took over and was operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (Caltrain came along shortly thereafter). They were still using cars from the 1920s and some gallery cars from the 1950s, but they were quickly replaced by the Caltrain Gallery cars. Should other systems in the US use these? Yes, especially Metrolink in Los Angeles and maybe move Chicago out of the 1950s.
I grew up with Chicago's Metra Electric District which is now a FULL CENTURY OLD. As originally built it had high level platform stations every half mile within the city of chicago and as a result most of its in-city length had no Elevated train routes, just very slow streetcar service. As a result I say 'of course' about the impressive advantages of Caltran Electric train service! One important note is that Metra apparently is unwilling to learn from its Electric District as the rest of Metra's region-wide commuter rail service is still diesel hauled Gallery Coaches, although they are considering battery-powered trains for a Heritage Route through ther Chicago neighborhood of Beverly Hills that features a stop every half-mile
Great video! But BART really isn’t a metro service. It’s a megaregional commuter system that covers three major cities in two different metro areas. The longest BART lines are over 100 kms long.
I used to take Caltrain every day from 2009 to 2011, then some in 2015. As a European, I was in absolute shock that they were running really crappy diesel trains in the world's "most innovative region". But then I slowly realized how many things are completely backwards in the US with the weak excuse of exceptionalism (and tons of corruption really).
need to go back for the new trains. rode this in April 2024 while electric testing was ongoing and the older diesel power with Gallery car was still being run. ironically I drove the entire way from ST Louis to California and on the way back drove past the Stadler factory in SLC
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Nice. The power is always cut briefly when the train crosses a phase separation from the high voltage AC overhead wires. Because of this, 120V power outlets, heating and airco also briefly stop working. This is normal and standard procedure worldwide. Only the interior lighting and other battery powered devices remain powered by the onboard train batteries during transition of the phase separation.
Too bad daily ridership of 27k is down from 72k. Also, given the slow progress of construction and low funding, CAHSR probably will not be operating on this line until at least 2045. Otherwise, it's a nice improvement.
@@DubGathoni From my point of view, Swedish railways have one huge disadvantage - there is a problem with transporting bicycles. Finland is better in this respect, and the Santa Claus Express is a fairy tale
A large part of the justification for the Caltrain electrification was, at the time (before Covid), their services were becoming crowded and they didn’t have a good way to accelerate the services, add frequency, or add much more capacity with diesel loco and coach sets. This sort of frequent stop-start service is the best use for EMUs with their high acceleration; though the major drop post-pandemic in ridership probably wouldn’t justify the upgrade anymore, were it started later than it had been
I'm not sure if the "not as good as their European counterparts" was standard "Euro-inferiority complex" that seems to infect western Europeans when talking about the US or there was actually a point to saying it, but the only difference you actually mentioned was the superior space in the American version.
Yeah, not sure what the "inferiority" part was about. Caltrain's version of the KISS is the most modern model that Stadler makes. It's almost identical to the European commuter KISS model. Most KISS trains running in Europe are 10-15 years older.
AFAIK, KISS is customized for each customer. Some European KISS EMUs may have higher top speed, better seats, luggage racks or more toilets. On the other hand Caltrain KISS EMUs are larger than any of ours and more modern than most or ours.
The main difference with the equivalent European model is the much larger American loading gauge, meaning much more interior space. There’s not really much that can be done about that
As a pesky Western European I will inform you that there is nothing inferior about these Kisses compared to our regional Kisses and similar trains, apart from the poor toilet situation.
Is Caltrains safe or does it suffer the same problems as the other public transit options in that area? If it's clean and safe I'm sure it's going to be amazing.
Both BART and Caltrain are incredibly safe and over 10x safer than the neighborhoods that they serve. BART actually has a marginally lower crime rate than Caltrain, despite its reputation online. But both services have negligible amounts of crime. We’re talking literally a few hundred crimes per year for dozens of millions of riders.
Interesting, America only has trains in the future. I mean the quick ones. What happened with the train that the US was supposed to get from Japan or China or Germany. If Vietnam could get a high speed train why can’t the US ? Answer, UNIONS. Airline unions. And greedy people who don’t want them on there land unless they receive a hefty amount of cash
Not really. BART has existed in the Bay Area since the 70s and was the first fully automated rail system in the world. It was copied worldwide with BART's block signaling automation system becoming the de facto standard for train automation for the next 30-40 years. Caltrain being electrified is a great step in the right direction and opens a new era of electrification of rail services in the US. But it's far from the first US rail service to be electrified. Even in the Bay Area, let alone in California or the US as a whole.
If American railroads are so outdated, why were US locomotive manufacturers exporting freight locomotives to the EU for so long, and in huge numbers up until about 10 years ago? And why do they still, to this day, export large numbers around the world? Maybe, just maybe, it’s all propaganda that American railroading is so much behind
I hope Caltrain is a sign of things to come
Hard to imagine with the disaster that's living in the White House...
@NikonF5user Because California has no problems itself, and isn't a cesspit......
The left not calling itself out on it's own problems, is why the world is in the state that it is
I rode it once. Great experience. Seems it's led to a sizeable increase in Caltrain ridership. Regardless of the sentimental value the old diesels have, that is unquestionably a huge positive. More of this, California!
In 2018 my grandma and I took Caltrain roundtrip from San Francisco to Palo Alto. I’d love to ride again to see the new trains.
Being from the Chicago area, I’m super nostalgic for gallery cars…… but yeah their time has definitely come and gone. I really wish we could have these trains here.
@@Mr.E723 isn't the blue island branch getting single level battery versions of these?
@ correct. But I have mixed feelings towards that as Metra actually owns those tracks. They should be electrifying them the right way. But i guess it’s the next best thing
Palo Alto is 2nd busiest due in part to Stanford University students, faculty, and employees who take Caltrain. Stanford runs near continuous busses on loops from the station to campus. This system is also somewhat unique in the US in that it has nearly equal patronage going both north from San Jose and south from SF at commute times. Most other systems are more uni-directional.
I definitely would like to see more U.S. commuter rail systems modernize with European EMU equipment like these KISS units and better frequencies all day every day. And It has so much benefit riders, the communities these systems serve and the environment alike.
What is needed more is new lines to unserved places, especially in California. The forecasted 120billion+ cost for hsr could be spent expanding slower speed lines to essentially every city across the state.. realistically 125mph is plenty to compete with cars, and can be achieved with diesel though as is proved by calmod electric can be done after the fact if the need arises.
CAHSR funding was approved via a statewide voter referendum. It is not just illegal but against California’s Constitution to use those funds for anything other than CAHSR.
And since that money was approved by voters in the entire state specifically for CAHSR, if any politician tried to raid that budget for anything else the voters would tear them apart. And this in addition to being sued out of existence for trying to do an unconstitutional budget transaction.
Modern American EMU trains are just as good as the European models; the manufacturers are so multinational these days it’s often the same companies, just using different design styles. I’m getting tired of people acting as if these Stadler units are the only such units on the market
@@andrewreynolds4949 Yea
@@andrewreynolds4949NJT Multilevel IIIs, Septa/RTD Silverliner Vs, and Metra/NICTD Highliner IIs entered the chat…
Love it. San Francisco Bay Area transportation getting the love it deserves!
One thing I love about KISS versus Gallery on Caltrain is the access to the second deck. In the old gallery, you had to go up spiraling stairs that were just wide enough for a person, and they were steep. The new KISS makes it much easier to get there without any issues.
Hard to believe this is the US, absolutely fantastic to see
Walter, the city of New York has electric commuter rail (the Long Island Railroad), and electric rail in the Northeast Corridor that the LIRR's a part of, so no, this really _isn't_ new or revolutionary in the United States (please try to remember, the United States and Canada are larger than Europe, Scandinavia, or Southeast Asia, and also that a lot of areas of the United States and Canada are _rural_ ones that require that you have a car, truck, or van to get around.) Due to the large size of each country, planes took off more than trains did, and people in the United States & Canada are used to driving long distances from place to place (which is why the 'road trip' became a part of U.S. and Canadian culture.) Trains are _not_ going to be easy to build or accept, and it will take a lot of time to accomplish that.
Indeed, this very model KISS train set should also be (in my opinion!) used on regional high-speed operations in Utah and Colorado. They could be upgraded to run as fast as 200 km/h (124 mph) on a new route in Utah from Brigham City south to Spanish Folk on the I-15 corridor and on a new route in Colorado from Fort Collins south to Pueblo on the I-25 corridor.
More EMUs are super great and we need many more of them, but more electric express/intercity locomotives are also something american railroads must invest in! Modern electric locomotives with European-style traction control and electronics can have performance reaching, if not at, EMU performance, which is perfect for limited-stop, regional express, long distance, sleeper, and select high speed services.
This is great to see. With our current federal government essentially telling us that Americans cannot have anything good like this, I fear this will continue to be the exception for the foreseeable future. Ugh.
The federal government has not banned improvements like this, only said they will not be funding them
That last shoot was amazing ❤❤❤❤❤❤
But seriously, the political will is changing in the Lehigh Valley with more people coming from New York, New Jersey and elsewhere. NJ Transit and the MTA should seriously consider the Statler cars as well.
NJT and MTA already have their preferred suppliers, who make very good trains. MTA recently replaced large portions of their heavy rail fleet with new single level EMUs, and NJT have bilevel EMUs on order with Alstom based on the existing Bombardier Multilevel design, which will be compatible with their existing bilevel fleet. Stadler is not a miraculous outlier, and only one of several companies attempting to break into or renew footholds in the American market.
I know California high speed rail has been a development hell poster child but man do I wish they pull through. (And happily, they are progressing. as slow at it is, they definitely are moving along as I drive by every few weeks)
I love driving but sometimes, I don’t feel like cannonballing it from SF to LA. Or Tesla can get their FSD to be actually FSD. Whichever will come first.
Only complaint is that they need more than one toilet, and the seats could be comfier. Otherwise they're amazing
I went on Caltrain the day they put the new electric trains fully into service, and wow is so much good about it
Every December, Caltrain runs a festive Holiday Train, with fun lighting on the sides of the gallery cars. AFAIK the lights are permanently fixed into those cars because they're just stored in the 4th Street depot all year long with the lights attached, and this year's Holiday Train still used that train set despite being the line being fully electric after September! Not sure if they plan to change that for 2025 or not.
Could Caltrain use its ex-Amtrak electric locomotives with those Holiday gallery cars?
@@firstlast1932 That's what I've been wondering, I think it would be a lot of fun if they did.
@@firstlast1932 I looked at some photos from 2024's Holiday Train and they also have lights on the locomotive! So probably they should just move the whole setup to the EMUs, not sure why they didn't do it for 2024 but could understand if they had resource/logistical constraints. Hopefully they get that sorted out before 2025's run.
The first time I rode that line was before Caltrain took over and was operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (Caltrain came along shortly thereafter). They were still using cars from the 1920s and some gallery cars from the 1950s, but they were quickly replaced by the Caltrain Gallery cars. Should other systems in the US use these? Yes, especially Metrolink in Los Angeles and maybe move Chicago out of the 1950s.
I grew up with Chicago's Metra Electric District which is now a FULL CENTURY OLD. As originally built it had high level platform stations every half mile within the city of chicago and as a result most of its in-city length had no Elevated train routes, just very slow streetcar service. As a result I say 'of course' about the impressive advantages of Caltran Electric train service! One important note is that Metra apparently is unwilling to learn from its Electric District as the rest of Metra's region-wide commuter rail service is still diesel hauled Gallery Coaches, although they are considering battery-powered trains for a Heritage Route through ther Chicago neighborhood of Beverly Hills that features a stop every half-mile
Isn’t Metra ordering Alstom Coradia bilevels to replace the gallery cars?
@@andrewreynolds4949 From what it seems like, it's mainly the Budd and Pullman built gallery cars that are being retired
@ Yes, the gallery cars which form the vast majority of the Metra fleet
Great video!
But BART really isn’t a metro service. It’s a megaregional commuter system that covers three major cities in two different metro areas. The longest BART lines are over 100 kms long.
11:08 It’s also where Fiddleford McGucket was selling PCs from his garage. Before moving to Gravity Falls Oregon.
Some nice features.
I used to take Caltrain every day from 2009 to 2011, then some in 2015. As a European, I was in absolute shock that they were running really crappy diesel trains in the world's "most innovative region". But then I slowly realized how many things are completely backwards in the US with the weak excuse of exceptionalism (and tons of corruption really).
I hope similar sets are adopted on Toronto's GO Expansion project
I thought GO was sticking with loco-hauled stock, just electric locomotives instead
I would like to see a freight locomotive running under electric power.
They do between Tamien and San Jose.
They do on the NEC
There is no electric freight locomotive in the US. Diesel freight locomotives run under wire on the entire line
@@toetankgr Yes. Did anyone say they were electric locomotives?
roses are red, violets are blue,
trains, trams and buses come in all sorts of hue ;)
my playlist #2 is about transportaion
11:56 What is that speedometer app?
Speedmeter
need to go back for the new trains. rode this in April 2024 while electric testing was ongoing and the older diesel power with Gallery car was still being run.
ironically I drove the entire way from ST Louis to California and on the way back drove past the Stadler factory in SLC
Please add a more specific goal to your Ko-Fi page, like, this amount of either one time or monthly income will allow me to cover this expense, which will help me to create more and/or better videos on this way. It could be new hardware, covering living or travel expenses, or whatever.
Nice. The power is always cut briefly when the train crosses a phase separation from the high voltage AC overhead wires. Because of this, 120V power outlets, heating and airco also briefly stop working. This is normal and standard procedure worldwide. Only the interior lighting and other battery powered devices remain powered by the onboard train batteries during transition of the phase separation.
Phase separation? We call it neutral section in my country lol
I could only imagine the electric rails in the Lehigh Valley…😂 Like The Twelfth Of Never! 😂😂😂
What's Millbrae Transport Museum? There's only a Train Museum with 1 small station building and 1 train car...
0:58 I guess, if soon means 2050
Too bad daily ridership of 27k is down from 72k. Also, given the slow progress of construction and low funding, CAHSR probably will not be operating on this line until at least 2045. Otherwise, it's a nice improvement.
face reveal on your phone 😅really cool, just sad that I can't ride this train because I live in europe
Europe has many such beautiful lines. It's good that the US is finally realizing that the train is a good thing.
For what I have seen, the best analog in Europe for these trains are in Sweden, being of similar loading gauge size to those in America.
@@DubGathoni From my point of view, Swedish railways have one huge disadvantage - there is a problem with transporting bicycles. Finland is better in this respect, and the Santa Claus Express is a fairy tale
Luckily, there are plenty of Stadler KISS across many European countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and more!
A large part of the justification for the Caltrain electrification was, at the time (before Covid), their services were becoming crowded and they didn’t have a good way to accelerate the services, add frequency, or add much more capacity with diesel loco and coach sets. This sort of frequent stop-start service is the best use for EMUs with their high acceleration; though the major drop post-pandemic in ridership probably wouldn’t justify the upgrade anymore, were it started later than it had been
My God I hate that annoying bell on all American trains. welcome to the 20th century USA 🙂
Why not use FLIRT instead of KISS
I'm not sure if the "not as good as their European counterparts" was standard "Euro-inferiority complex" that seems to infect western Europeans when talking about the US or there was actually a point to saying it, but the only difference you actually mentioned was the superior space in the American version.
Yeah, not sure what the "inferiority" part was about. Caltrain's version of the KISS is the most modern model that Stadler makes. It's almost identical to the European commuter KISS model. Most KISS trains running in Europe are 10-15 years older.
AFAIK, KISS is customized for each customer. Some European KISS EMUs may have higher top speed, better seats, luggage racks or more toilets. On the other hand Caltrain KISS EMUs are larger than any of ours and more modern than most or ours.
The main difference with the equivalent European model is the much larger American loading gauge, meaning much more interior space. There’s not really much that can be done about that
As a pesky Western European I will inform you that there is nothing inferior about these Kisses compared to our regional Kisses and similar trains, apart from the poor toilet situation.
Is Caltrains safe or does it suffer the same problems as the other public transit options in that area? If it's clean and safe I'm sure it's going to be amazing.
Very safe as they have fare inspectors on every train to check tickets and kick people off who don't have tickets
It’s Caltrain
Both BART and Caltrain are incredibly safe and over 10x safer than the neighborhoods that they serve.
BART actually has a marginally lower crime rate than Caltrain, despite its reputation online. But both services have negligible amounts of crime. We’re talking literally a few hundred crimes per year for dozens of millions of riders.
@californiamade5608 it may identify as SP 4449. Fixed it😀
Interesting, America only has trains in the future. I mean the quick ones. What happened with the train that the US was supposed to get from Japan or China or Germany. If Vietnam could get a high speed train why can’t the US ? Answer, UNIONS. Airline unions. And greedy people who don’t want them on there land unless they receive a hefty amount of cash
Cool but a bit slow. Why don’t they increase it to at least 200km/h?
Cause it's a regional rail with stations less than 1-3 miles apart. Also the line is like 48 mi long so it doesn't really matter
There are a significant number of at-grade crossings on the line that need to be addressed before speeds can go above 79 mph
@@rjsieder well then they should do that lol
@@rjsieder level crossings are so dangerous
When the most modern railroad in the US is what the Europeans and Japanese had 40 years ago…
Not really. BART has existed in the Bay Area since the 70s and was the first fully automated rail system in the world. It was copied worldwide with BART's block signaling automation system becoming the de facto standard for train automation for the next 30-40 years.
Caltrain being electrified is a great step in the right direction and opens a new era of electrification of rail services in the US. But it's far from the first US rail service to be electrified. Even in the Bay Area, let alone in California or the US as a whole.
If American railroads are so outdated, why were US locomotive manufacturers exporting freight locomotives to the EU for so long, and in huge numbers up until about 10 years ago? And why do they still, to this day, export large numbers around the world?
Maybe, just maybe, it’s all propaganda that American railroading is so much behind