Is the California High-Speed Rail line going to use/replace Caltrain tracks?
It’s not really a good idea to combine commuter rail equipment with hi-speed. First of all the locomotives are designed differently and optimized for different conditions. Commuter locomotives are designed to start and stop all day long. Hi-speed (like France’s TGV) are meant to go from point to point with very few stops and the engine turning at a very high (and efficient) RPM and speed. The analogy is that you don’t use a Ferrari to run taxi service in Manhattan. Also, the existing Cal Train Tracks will not support a true high speed rail system. They are simply not designed for it, because things like the track grade (how much incline the train goes up or down) and at what speed the train can take certain curves needs to be considered. Even Acela in the NorthEast can only hit high speeds at certain locations- they can’t run a constant 150+ miles all the way down the line. Lastly tearing up existing tracks and replacing them with new ones would be highly disruptive to the existing com
