California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

2007-08 – 2017-18 California State Rail PlanThis Chapter presents the ten-year operational and service improvement and trainservice expansion plans for the Route. The Chapter also provides information onroute administration, route history, route description, and historical performance.Figure 7A is the San Joaquin route map, including the connecting buses.TEN-YEAR OPERATIONAL AND SERVICE IMPROVEMENTPLANSThis Section focuses on the specific ten-year operational and service improvementplans the Department has for the San Joaquin Route for the three key componentsof Operations: on-time performance and reliability, streamlined operations andpassenger amenities, and multimodal connectivity. Key performance goals fortravel time, ridership, revenue, and farebox ratio are also presented.The combined operations program, as is pertains primarily to the San Joaquin andPacific Surfliner Routes, is also discussed in Chapter III in further detail. (ChapterIII also contains some information on the Capitol Corridor operations program.)ON-TIME PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITYThe Department’s goal is to improve service reliability and increase on-timeperformance (OTP) to 90 percent by the end of the Plan period. This goal is basedon significant implementation of the unconstrained capital program described inChapter II.The OTP over the years on the San Joaquins has fluctuated considerably, with agradual overall decline as passenger service levels and freight movement hasincreased. It is difficult to maintain high on-time levels because 75 percent of this365-mile corridor from Bakersfield to Oakland and Sacramento is single-track.(See Figure 7C discussed in more detail later in the chapter, that shows the trackcharacteristics on the Route.) OTP on a single-track railroad is particularlysensitive to increases in traffic and right of way disruptions (e.g., crossingaccidents, broken rails and crossing gates, and normal maintenance of wayactivities) because there is no other track to handle the traffic or accommodate theservice disruption.Over the last two decades, the Department has financed a number of track projectsintended to increase OTP and reliability, as well as increase capacity for additionaltrain frequencies. These projects have increased the amount of double-track routemiles on the BNSF from less than four percent to about 16 percent. TheseDepartment financed track projects on private railroads included railroad on-timeperformance agreements, meaning that the railroad agrees that once a capitalproject is completed, it will maintain a specified level of OTP. Also, 25 miles ofcentralized traffic control (CTC) were installed west of Stockton to Oakley, andthe final 17 miles of CTC from Oakley to Port Chicago are being upgraded in2007. Several additional double-track segments are currently being studied, andbeneficial ones will be undertaken as funding becomes available. Ultimately, the106