Category: Reports

  • The (Almost) Perfect Trip from Auburn to Bakersfield

    Trip Report and Comments by Ralph James, RailPAC member Photos by the author. From time to time I have need to travel from our home east of Auburn and Colfax to points in the southern San Joaquin Valley. With no early departures out of Colfax, the best that can be done is to catch the…

  • Comet Cars not seen in a glowing light by newly formed San Joaquin Joint Powers Board

    Report by Bill Kerby, RailPAC Treasurer The author of the May 24th meeting of a newly formed joint powers board wishes to submit a revised version of that meeting. The presentation made by Dan Leavitt was mischaracterized in the report. Agency names were not fully provided and this oversight is corrected in the following revision.…

  • The complicated history of the Sprinter

    Report and Photo by Noel T. Braymer, RailPAC e-newsletter Editor The Sprinter started out as a simple project to serve the 22 miles between Oceanside and Escondido. The original proposal by RailPAC’s Byron Nordberg back in the 1980’s was to rebuild the existing single tracked short line railroad between these 2 cities for about 70-80…

  • Report of the First Ever San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority

    Report by Mike Barnbaum, Associate Director of the Rail Passenger Association of California & Nevada, on Sunday 24 March 2013 The New San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, created by legislation from Cathleen Galgiani (AB 1779) and signed into law by Governor Edmund G. Jerry Brown on September 29, 2012, held its first meeting on March…

  • San Joaquin Valley Rail Committee meeting report

    Report by Bruce Jenkins I attended the SJVRC Meeting on Thursday, 2/28 in Fresno. Some of the more important items are as follows: Caltrans Division of Rail Chief, Bill Bronte reported : a) The San Joaquin trains are sporting a 64.5% Fare Box Recovery, the highest in the country. b) On Time Performance for February,…

  • Pro’s and Con’s of Replacing Amtrak

    Analysis by Noel T. Braymer With changes coming this October to the billing for State supported trains run by Amtrak, California and the other States supporting Amtrak Trains are getting sticker shock. Congress which is forcing Amtrak to raise its prices is also considering allowing private companies to take over some of these Amtrak trains.…

  • Planning for Rail Service up to 2030 in the San Joaquin Valley

    Here are some excerpts from a report from October 26, 2012 by Stacey Mortensen and Dan Leavitt of the San Joaquin Regional Rail Commission. This report makes very clear that the San Joaquin Trains will continue to run on the BNSF with possible additional stops after 2020  with express trains using the new HSR tracks.…

  • Caltrain Modernization Program

    Report by Bruce Jenkins, RailPAC Director Caltrain is the commuter railroad operating on it’s own Right of Way (RoW) from San Francisco to San Jose with a limited six train service further south to Gilroy on Union Pacific RoW. The San Francisco/San Jose leg has been a rail commuter line since 1863 and was known…

  • To Sacramento by way of the Sunset Limited-Texas Eagle

    Photo and Trip Report in newly rebuilt Superliner cars by Russ Jackson, RailPAC “It isn’t the destination it’s the journey.” That’s what the retired doctor sitting across from us in the Sunset Limited dining car said about train travel. He was the personification of that statement, as his trip started in Seattle on the Coast…

  • Amtrak’s Southwest Chief: Anything new?

    Report (with PHOTOS) and Comments by Russ Jackson How is Train #3 doing into Los Angeles Union Station this summer? The short answer is, not bad, but with a few exceptions. On May 24, 2012, the Southwest Chief departed Chicago Union Station on time, with three non-regular consist cars on the end and Amtrak CEO,…