Squeezing the best result out of the Natron Cutoff
Overnighter timetable
The following is just an example. It describes possibilities for the Natron Cutoff, after the planned upgrades north and south are finished. Assumptions are the following:
- Upgrades Seattle - Eugene for the Cascades Talgo are finished.
- The Capitol Corridor in California has been upgraded.
- The California Highspeed Rail Project is finished.
- The Dumbarton Bridge is back in service.
Train | No.1 | No.3 | No.5 | No.4 | No.2 | No.6 |
||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Seattle | 08:10a | 10:10a | 12:10p | 03:00p | 05:00p | 07:00p |
||
Portland | 05:40a | 07:40a | 09:40a | 05:34p | 07:34p | 09:34p |
||
Eugene | 03:51a | 05:51a | 07:51a | 07:22p | 09:22p | 11:22p |
||
Redding | 09:04p | 11:04p | 01:04a | 02:08a | 04:08a | 06:08a |
||
Sacramento | 07:09p | 09:09p | 11:09p | 04:05a | 06:05a | 08:05a |
||
Modesto | 08:23p | 10:23p | 04:49a | 08:49a |
||||
Los Angeles | 05:41p | 07:34a | |
|||||
Riverside | 04:57p | 08:14a | |
|||||
San Diego | 04:12p | 08:58a | |
|||||
San Jose | 08:59p | 10:15a |
||||||
Richmond | 05:58p | 07:14a | |
|||||
Oakland | 05:38p | 07:36a | |
|||||
Redwood City | 04:49p | 08:41p | 08:23a | 10:31a |
||||
San Francisco | 04:22p | 08:14p | 08:48a | 10:56a |
The table shows very clearly, how the California Highspeed Rail Project changes the function of the Shasta Route. Los Angeles will be a convenient overnighter destination for Portland. Such traffic has a good chance to be successful.
This table is based on rough estimations for the Natron Cutoff. If no possibility is found, that allows the integration of daytime traffic, the option outlined on this page deserves a second look and more detailed analysis. There are also problems to overcome:
- The travel time used for the timetable above is theoretically possible, but without major change, several siding waits would have to be added to a real world timetable. 6 passenger trains have to cross the Cascades in two-hour interval, 3 southbound, 3 northbound. Line capacity is inversely related to speed difference, and the current operation on the Cascades crossing with its especially slow freights is completely incompatible. One possible solution could be, to have a timetable for freight, not just a schedule with defined departure and arrival times. This would mean, that Union Pacific has to change the principles of its operation, and the author gives this idea a chance well below 1%. Another option would be massive public investment into capacity improvements. Such investment is easier to justify, if it can support daytrains as well.
-
For Sacramento - Redding, upgrade to 125/110 mph is considered less likely by the author, if there is no addition of
- regional trains to Redding,
- Shasta Route nighttrains and
- Shasta Route daytrains
But first, it will be checked wether the old alignment via the Siskiyou allows the operation of daytrains.