Phil Matier at the SF Comicle has a bead on the Transbay Transit Center problems and just added another item to the list of woes. It's the capacity of the brand new terminal! Turns out that if the predictions for Caltrain's growth are accurate, the terminal might be too small--and that may be the case even without high-cost rail making it to EssEff. But here in B'game most people are more concerned with the train horns, so here is the prediction
Caltrain expects to see its ridership more than quadruple over the next 20 years to 250,000 riders a day, once it converts from diesel to electric trains. But now there are questions over whether there is enough room in the underground station to handle the 12 to 16 trains per hour Caltrain may need to run into the city to handle all those new passengers.
“Our initial analysis shows that at least 10 trains per hour can be accommodated in the terminal,” (Caltrain spokesman Seamus) Murphy said. Meaning that Caltrain could be two to six trains short on platform space. And that’s without high-speed rail, if it ever comes.
If this was phrased accurately, 12 to 16 trains per hour inbound to SF means 12 to 16 outbound as well so that could be 32 passes through B'game per hour--one train every two minutes. And you thought the Broadway intersection was a bit of a mess now.........You might ask, "What about the grade separation?" Here is the tentative schedule for the planning -- while noting that the actual construction funds are a long way from being in hand. Having spent 30+ years in the forecasting business, I can tell you not to get too worked up about a train every two minutes just yet, but it bears watching...and listening.
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