RAILforum: More LA-Santa Barbara Train Service

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Posted by GP25 (Member # 158) on :

For years now I have been wishing for more LA Santa Barbara trains. As of right now they are 10 LA-Santa Barbara trains. But two are Train #11 and #14 the Coast Starlight. The other 8 trains are the Pacific Surfliners trains and they all originate from San Diego as act as thru train service via LA. You could use the Coast Starlight. But this train is an all reserved train and does not stop in Van Nuys and Ventura (both which are in California). And we will being seeing new train service soon as the Daylight Route will be added some time in 2001. But this train is and will be its own train. The LA-Santa Barbara corridor is it own corridor too and needs its own train service for it. Maybe when the rehab work is done on Tunnel #26 is done and with more Pacific Surfliner Cars coming in service. We may see more train in this Corridor.

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GP2500

Posted by Robert F (Member # 141) on :

You probably will, because tunnel #26 is one of the limiting factors in the trains going through. With speed limits at 25mph through it they can only get so many trains through at a time, and the morning through there is murder, lots of local Metrolink trains. I hope to see more to Santa Barbara, or up to SLO too.

Just my $.02
-Robert F.

Posted by daniel3197 (Member # 27) on :

More sidings will DEFINITELYbe needed if not double track out as far as Goleta.
From my Railfan Timetable it looks like the current passenger trains use all the siding space on the Coast Line for much of the day.
There are only 7 sizable sidings right now on
the Coast Line south of Santa Barbara.

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.

I think the Coast Daylight service is probably at least 3 years off because I doubt the current order of Surfliner equipment is enough to equip this new train.
Amtrak probably was only thinking of replacing the single-level equipment for the Surfliner not ordering additional equipment for the area. I hope to be surprised and see a net increase for the California equipment pool!
It usually takes at least 3 years to order
and take delivery of new passenger equipment.
This is where I get my 3 year timeframe for any Coast Daylight train from.

Posted by MattAtTrainWebDotCom (Member # 14) on :

More trains are coming, but do be patient!

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.

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-Matthew J. Melzer
matt@trainweb.com

Posted by Margaret SP fan (Member # 215) on :

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