Ex-Amtrak Class AEM7 electric locos Nos. 929 and 938 (in ‘Caltrain’ livery) in the yard at San Francisco 4th Street station on August 23. The locos will be used for test trains on the newly electrified line.
KEITH FENDER
THE first electrified main line in California is nearly ready for electric operation. The 52-milelong‘Caltrain’line between San Francisco and San Jose is being electrified at 25kV AC to allow new EMUs to replace the current intensive diesel-hauled push-pull service. Eventually, the route is planned as the access route into San Francisco for the Californian high speed rail project that is slowly building a new line connecting
San Francisco and Los Angeles. British company Balfour Beatty won the contract to electrify the route and via its American subsidiary has installed more than 2500 overhead support masts and overhead line; the last section of which has been installed in late 2023, allowing electric train testing to begin on the entire route.To do this, both the new Stadler-built seven-car double-deck‘Kiss’EMUs, and two ex-Amtrak electric locos moved across the USA from their former base on theWashington-Boston route will be used. Caltrain has announced it plans to introduce electric trains from September 2024. Caltrain has now ordered 23x7 car‘Kiss’EMUs using options in the original contract; Stadler is building these in Salt Lake City.
BEMU ordered
Caltrainoperatesasmallnumber of services south of San Jose Tamien to Gilroy using tracks ownedbyUnionPacificandplans toretainsomediesellocosand push-pulltrainsfortheseservices, which may be extended further southin the future.