Opinions and Facts from Noel T. Braymer During the ongoing debate over High Speed Rail and improved rail passenger service in general such projects are generally dismissed as Boondoggles by its critics. The term Boondoggle implies something is wasteful, expensive and corrupt. The California High Speed Rail Project has gone through several evolutions and has…

Opinion by Noel T. Braymer  Amtrak’s problem is the same problem the railroads had for most of the 20th Century: too much overhead costs and not enough revenue. After the Civil War to just before World War I the railroads built many lines of questionable value. Local governments also often subsidized railroad construction to build…

Opinion by Noel T. Braymer A major reason for reorganizing LOSSAN from a Joint Powers Agency into a Joint Powers Authority is to make it possible for it to take over management of the Pacific Surfliners. Much of this is modeled after the arrangement  the Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority has over the operation of…

Report and Pictures by Noel T. Braymer I amazed myself by getting up and out the door before 9 AM on my day off  to catch the 644 Coaster out of Oceanside at 9:22 AM. This gave me almost 4 hours in San Diego so I could still get home early enough to take care…

Analysis and photos by Noel T. Braymer The California High Speed Rail Project has been a bi-partisan project  since 1996 from the very start. The High Speed Rail Authority was created by Republican Governor Pete Wilson and Republican Governor Schwarzenegger placed the Prop 1A measure on the ballot in 2008 which has the bonds central…

Opinions by Noel T. Braymer Train 761 is the only Amtrak Train to travel north of Los Angeles that doesn’t have either a connecting train or origination from San Diego. Train 761 travels to San Luis Obispo and has connecting Thruway Bus service there to San Jose. The plan is to extend the 761 all…

Opinion By Noel T. Braymer Recently the Los Angeles Times ran a story about a USC Dornsife Poll it helped pay for claiming that The Majority of Californians now oppose High Speed Rail and Most people want a revote on High Speed Rail. So where are the mobs of angry citizens with their torches and…

Opinion by Noel T. Braymer The experiment with running the morning Surfliner Express from San Diego to Los Angeles isn’t going well. The train has a poor on-time record and ridership is lower than the train it replaced. What would be better is to run all Surfliners between San Diego and Los Angeles in 2…

Report and Photos by Noel T. Braymer After waiting 32 years to ride the old Pacific Electric Line on Exposition Blvd, waiting one more month after it opened to finally ride it when I had some time seemed typical. I was able to get up early and even out the door by 7AM. I like…

Analysis by Noel T. Braymer During the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with the start up of the Shinkansen (or Bullet Trains) my Father pointed out that train travel can be faster than by plane.That sounded silly since jet planes flew at over 500 miles per hour and Bullet Trains had a top speed of 130. My…