In the long-term the Coast Line will
need to be double-track for any short headway on the Surfliner route. This is without factoring in any new Coast Passenger Corridors such as the Amtrak Coast Daylight or an increase in freight traffic.

As outlined in Amtrak West's California Passenger Rail Plan as well as Governer Davis' Traffic Congestion Plan, there may eventually be up to 14 Surfliner trainsets (as of now, the order calls for 9 with an option for 11). The goal is hourly service south of Los Angeles, and certainly a few more frequencies north of there.

But we're all at You Pee...err... UP's mercy. As we all know, they're extremely uncooperative and unsupportive to Amtrak. They'd like to see less passenger trains in general! Fortunately, the Coast Line is a special case. The majority of north-south UP freight traffic travels through the San Joaquin Valley and via Tehachapi Pass, not the Coast Line. It's simply a faster route to Colton Yard, UP's Southern Californian hub.

There are, however, many local freight trains which generally operate between Burbank, Gemco (Van Nuys), and Oxnard. Fortunately, UP is actually making the line more passenger-friendly south of Oxnard. The CTC has been extended from Moorpark to Camarillo, and eventually it will be 100% CTC as far north as Goleta or SBA, and double-tracked as far north as Oxnard. The two most likely Surfliner frequencies we will see added to the Coast Line is a second San Luis Obispo train, as well as an early morning northbound train to Goleta (and, presumably, a late-night southbound back to Los Angeles). Metrolink plans on extending their service to Ventura, presumably as soon as UP wraps up the track upgrades.

As for the Coast Daylight, we'll wait and see on that one. The State of California wants that train, and it has a lot of grassroots support. I agree that 3 years is a fair amount of time to give before expecting to see it.