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The Coast Starlight and the Coast Line are Just Coasting
Report and Commentary by Russ Jackson Amtrak’s Coast Starlight still travels daily between Los Angeles and Seattle. Should we take it for granted? Well, let’s look at its performance lately. From Amtrak’s December 2012 Performance Report, now posted on Amtrak.com, we know the train’s end-point “on time performance” (OTP) for the fiscal year since October…
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A Business Analysis of the San Diego Metroliners
By Andrew C. Selden NOTE: This article appeared as the first article in the first issue of the “RailPAC Quarterly Review,” in September, 1984. What Mr. Selden said then bears close resemblance to the situation facing the Amtrak “experiment” with a morning limited stop train on the same corridor in 2013. Mr. Selden is President…
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Preserve the Railyards “Depot” site for an Intermodal District and Build Affordable Rental Units in the Railyards
Commentary By Chuck Robuck, RailPAC Director, Sacramento, and former President, CC Riders In the past, the City of Sacramento has proposed building BOTH an Arena and an Intermodal Transit Facility on the City-owned 13-acre parcel near the Historic Train Depot (AKA the “Depot” site). There is clearly not enough space on this site to accommodate…
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LA Busy Building over 35 Miles of New Rail Transit over the Next 10 Years.
Report by Noel T. Braymer with illustrations from LA METRO Los Angeles County has two major Light Rail extensions under construction now that are planned to be finished by 2015 which will be added to its existing 87.8 miles of rail transit. There is the 6.6 mile extension of the Expo Line using an old…
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Arizona and passenger rail: Now and in the exciting future
Report and Commentary by Russ Jackson, PHOTOS by Russ Jackson, Mike Palmer, Bill Lindley. We all know that two major transcontinental railroads have crossed the state of Arizona for over 100 years, built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe in the north and the Southern Pacific across the southern route. Today the AT&SF is…
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November 15th workshop for the Sacramento Valley Station Phase 2
Meeting notice from Gregory Taylor, Project Manager, Sacramento Valley Station Phase 2, Department of Public Works “The City of Sacramento is asking for help getting passengers to attend our workshop. We need patrons of the longer haul trains from the station – Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, and the San Joaquins. With the active participation of…
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Transportation Agency for Monterey County meeting report
Rail Committee meeting held August 6, 2012 Report by Chris Flescher, Salinas RailPAC Director Santa Cruz Branch Line George Dondero, the Executive Director of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC), made a presentation. In (last) December, the Sierra Northern Railroad pulled out of an agreement to operate service on the branch line. The…
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Where I Would Like to Go by Train; but Can’t
By Noel T. Braymer The best places to go to by train are those with lots of traffic, congestion and expensive parking. One place like that which is hard in California to go to by train are airports. There are several California airports with transit connections to train stations. The last time I tried to take…
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The Texas Eagle in Illinois and the San Joaquins in California
Commentary by Ralph James, RailPAC contributor On October 2, 2012, the Railway Age “blog” contained an article by Lyndon Henry, “Texas Eagle highlights passenger train success,” which was included in the October 8 RailPAC weekly e-newsletter. In that article a statement is made that the Chicago-St. Louis upgrades on the Union Pacific will not affect…
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YES, Long-Distance Amtrak Trains are Crowded!
Trip Report on the Southwest Chief and the Empire Builder Commentary by Andrew C. Selden, MinnARP, Minneapolis Recently I rode Los Angeles-Chicago on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief #4 over a weekend and it was jammed the entire way. There were two sleepers and just two coaches, which the crew—conductor and service crew alike—reported was a standard…