OUR AC-DC RAILROAD

As I continue my summer vacation, I’ve updated a column I wrote 14 years ago…

Metro-North’s train service in Connecticut is challenging because of a technological quirk of fate: ours is the only commuter railroad in the U.S. that operates on three modes of power… AC, DC and diesel.

On a typical run from, say, New Haven to Grand Central, the first part of the journey is done “under the wire”, the trains being powered by 13,000 volt AC overhead wires, or catenaries.  Around Pelham, in Westchester County, the pantographs are lowered and the conversion is made to 660 volt DC third-rail power for the rest of the trip into New York City.  Even diesel engines must convert to third-rail, as their smoky exhaust is banned in the Park Avenue tunnels.

Third Rail "Shoe"

And there’s the rub: Connecticut trains need both AC and DC, overhead and third-rail, power pick-ups and processors. That means a lot more electronics, and added cost, for each car.  While the DC-only M7 cars running in Westchester cost about $2 million each, the dual-mode M8 car designed for Connecticut cost considerably more.

So, some folks are asking… “Why not just use one power source? Just replace the overhead wires with third-rail and we can buy cheaper cars.”  Simple, yes. Smart, no.  And here’s why.

DC-powered third rail is less efficient. Trains accelerate much faster using overhead AC voltage, the power source used by the fastest trains in the world… the TGV, Shinkansen, etc.  On third-rail speeds are limited to 75 miles an hour vs. 90 mph under the wire. That means, mile for mile, commute time is longer using third rail.

There’s not enough space to lay a third-rail along each of the four tracks in the railroad’s right of way.  All four existing tracks would have to be ripped out and the space between them widened.  Every bridge and tunnel would have to be widened, platforms moved and land acquired. Cost? Probably hundreds of millions of dollars, years of construction and service disruptions.

Even with third-rail, the CDOT would still be required to provide overhead power lines for Amtrak’s catenary-only electric trains. That would mean maintaining two power systems.  

Third-rail AC power requires power substations every few miles, meaning further construction and real estate. The environmental lawsuits alone would kill this idea.

Third-rail ices up in bad weather and can get buried in snow, causing short circuits. Overhead wires have problems sometimes, but they are never buried in a blizzard.

Third-rail is dangerous to pedestrians and track workers.  The idea of conversion to third-rail was studied in the 1980’s by consultants to CDOT.  They concluded that, while cumbersome and costly, the current dual-power system is, in the long run, cheaper and more efficient than installing third-rail. The engineers at CDOT got it right.

Doubtless, we’ll have further “wires down” problems on Metro-North in the years to come. Ironically, Metro-North’s 97% on-time record has made us come to expect good service, despite our ancient infrastructure. But in the long run, service will be faster and even more reliable by sticking with our dual-mode system.

 

TRAVEL GOES ELECTRIC

Enjoying the heatwave this summer?  The electric utilities sure are. 

And just wait ‘til you get your next bill.  They’ve been warning us for months now that we’ll be in for a shocker as the average bill will jump about a $13 per month . 

That’s on top of what are already the second highest electric rates in the US, exceeded only by those in Hawaii.  In Connecticut we pay twice as much money for electricity as customers in some other states.

But you get what you pay for and, so far this summer, our electric supply and reliability hasn’t been an issue as in other states.  Aside from storm damage, there have been no interruptions, no brown-outs or requests to reduce consumption. 

But increasingly we are relying on electricity for more than just AC but also, more and more, for our transportation. 

As Metro-North and Amtrak add more service, that means more electric trains… and demands on Eversource.  But again, so far so good this summer.  Even on the hottest days the railroad has not had to reduce its consumption by running trains slower.

Credit must also go to CDOT which spent $912 million between 1993 and 2021 fixing the railroads’ catenary system delivering that electricity.  That’s why our trains keep running while those in New Jersey don’t.

Consider also CDOT’s recent purchase of 46 new electric buses which will run on the CTfastrak busway between New Britain and Hartford.  Bought under an $86 million federal grant, the new buses will be cleaner and quieter, running 250 miles per day on a single charge. CDOT plans to electrify all 700 of its buses by 2035.

And we’re not even talking about the future of electric-power airplanes or mandatory use of “shore power” for cargo ships when docked, all in the name of clean air and global warming.

How about other electric vehicles… e-school buses, light duty trucks (think Amazon local delivery) and, of course, electric cars?  Is “the grid” ready for that increased demand?

Electric passenger car sales have slowed in recent months as consumers seem reluctant to “go electric” until we have more charging stations.  But those EVs are still selling: in Q2 EV sales were up 11% year over year. 

And that keeps Victoria Rojo mighty busy planning for the future.

She’s the Lead Data Scientist at ISO-New England, the independent, non-profit organization that runs our region’s grid.  They’re responsible for coordinating New England’s 32,000 megawatt power capacity, working with 400 different generators serving over 14 million customers.  It’s a second-by-second balancing act.

ISO-New England Control Room

A physicist by training, she projects that we will see a 23% increase in electric demand in just the next decade (not including electric trains).  Nor does that projection include the effects of global warming on increased AC usage.  “That’s a difficult one to adjust for,” she tells me.

Visit the ISO-NE.com website and you’ll see a breakdown of electricity demand and how it’s being met.  There’s also a daily projection of demand, hour by hour, which proves amazingly accurate.

With the closing of the region’s last few coal-fired plants, New England is still heavily reliant on natural gas and nuclear power for almost two-thirds of its power.  Renewables like solar and wind now answer less than 5% of our needs.

Obviously, we will need more power plants and a better transmission system (electricity suffers “line loss” the farther you send it) to meet these growing demands.  So Rojo’s planning is just the first step.

In the meantime, crank up the AC.

THE FIRST TRANSCON

Aviation history was made July 7, 1929,  when the first transcontinental flight from New York to Los Angeles, took off, not with an airplane, but on a train.

This was the real birth of commercial aviation in the US, and it was led by none other than Charles Lindbergh,  just two years after his solo crossing of the Atlantic.

The journey from New York began with an overnight Pullman train. Christened by Amelia Earhart “The Airway Limited“, it arrived the next morning at Port Columbus, Ohio at a purpose-built train station and airport.  There the passengers boarded a Ford Trimotor and flew west stopping to refuel in St. Louis, Kansas City and finally arriving in Waynoka, OK.   There they boarded another train overnight and finished the final leg from Clovis NM to LA the next day, again by air.

Ford Trimotor

Lindbergh piloted the first eastbound transcon flight July 8th from Glendale, CA, having leant his name, expertise and reputation to, for its time, a Bezos-sized leap into the future.

The service pioneered by Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT, later to become TWA) cut travel time between the east and west coast in half, to only 46 hours eastbound, and 50 hours going west against the wind.

The Fort Trimotor model 5-AT could carry up to 17 passengers, each of whom paid the equivalent, in today’s dollars, of about $6200 for the one-way trip.

Because the plane was unpressurized and could only fly at low altitudes, the ride was usually bumpy.  And noisy: sound levels as high as 120 dB inside the cabin meant that cabin stewards had to use megaphones to talk to passengers inflight.

Ford Trimotor interior

The Trimotor cruised at 107 mph (compared to modern jets at 500 – 600 mph).  The planes creaked and groaned and the wooden windows rattled in their frames. It was said there would be random metallic sounds throughout the flight… hardly reassuring.

As daring (and exhausting) as daytime travel by air might have been, it was still considered far too dangerous to fly at night. There were few navigation beacons until 1930.  After that the trains were then replaced with more planes.

In September 1929 Lindy’s line made another aviation first:  the first air crash involving a commercial flight over land.  All onboard perished in this, the first of three such accidents in the airline’s first few months of operation.

Despite the public’s fascination with aviation, this transcontinental service never turned a profit, even with their relatively high fares.  In its first year and a half of operations, the transcontinental service lost the equivalent, in today’s money, of $49 million. Less than four months after its launch, the stock market crashed in October 1929, ushering in the Great Depression, which slashed passenger numbers and badly needed revenue.

But this venture, visionary and creative as it was, led, through bankruptcy and mergers, to the creation of TWA, which itself was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.  Today the New York to Los Angeles market sees 4 million passengers a year.  Fares are as low as $150 one-way and the journey takes about five to six hours.