As promised more ideas on Commuter Rail for Gonave.

I mentioned in a few previous blogs about establishing rail as a main mode of travel around Gonave.  It will decrease the footprint and move people around Gonave very easily.  Transit stops can be new locations where develop starts, and can even spur vitalization in existing communities.  Having a modern infrastructure system that can not only move people and goods, will help to lure business development from foreign investors.

Now many will say Gonave doesn't have good roads, housing, jobs, water, sewer service, so building a multimillion dollar rail system is far from everyone's mind.  Keep in mind that a timeline for something like this is many years down the road after some mild development has taken place on Gonave.  Also the system, if built, would be built in phases.  With the Hurko housing and office development, along with them wanting to build large Wind Turbines and a road connecting a village to the Focus City, planning ahead is a good idea.

Option 1

 

This is the Westside Express Service train on TriMet's Portland Commuter Rail line.  It has just 5 stations over more than 20 miles, but does connect to a station where passengers can connect to the Light Rail system.  This train is made by US Railcar and is a Diesel Multiple Unit.  The car hold 95 people and can run by itself or coupled together.  The company that made Portland's vehicle was sold to the current US Rail.  The company doesn't have a regular schedule of building vehicles, and are built as they are ordered.  Meaning that there could be major delays in getting vehicles when it is time to start service, which is what happened in Portland's situation.  These vehicles are about $4 million US per car.

Option 2

Many sites state that this is a light rail vehicle, but similar to Portland's WES system, this is also a Diesel Multiple Unit or DMU.  The difference is that this vehicle is lighter and thus takes off much faster.  It makes it a perfect vehicle when you have either long distance stops of several miles or even two stops within a mile.  It is made by Siemens which builds many of these and many other heavy and light rail vehicles.  This system is outside of San Diego and is called the Sprinter.  This is personally my choice for Gonave, given that it is around $3 million dollars per vehicle, it holds 136 seating and 90 for standing.  It can also use standard rail like the WES system and this allows these vehicles to use the same track as a freight train.

Option 3

This is the Capital MetroRail Commuter Rail line in Austin.  These vehicles hold a total of 200 people with 108 people sitting and 92 standing.  Like the other two systems two trains can be connected together.  This train is slower taking off than the Siemens vehicle.  The system cost $6 million per train and like the others this is a DMU that uses regular freight rail tracks.  This train is made by Stadler Rail.

Again I know that this is years down the line, however the cost of building the rail is very cheap when using basic methods.  Given that these system don't require an electric line to power itself, the start up costs are much cheaper.  While all three use diesel to power them, they also can be retrofitted to use electric power.

Out of the three, Option 2 looks like the better option, due to it's smaller size, quick take off speeds, and costs.  Soon I will put videos of these systems and how they function.  One idea that we have thought about was building a 5 mile stretch of single track rail that would have four stations that would connect Anse-a-Galets to the future Focus City.

Go Gonave