I come from Germany, and I was on holiday last year in California, and I am a Railwayfan. (I traveled from Las Vegas to S. F.) Why it is n o t possible to go by train from L. V. to S. F. straight ahead ?? O. K. I read the timetable from Amtrak, but I can t understand why if it not possible between two big citys drive an passenger train! And the climax is, S. F. exists n o railway station.
USA is not a great Railway nation.
I hope in future there will be better.
#But Amtrak it was an better service as in Germany
MPALMER Member # 125
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San Francisco does have rail service with commuter trains (regionalzug)! There are 80 trains a day (Monday-Friday) on the line between San Francisco and San Jose, and plenty of trains on the weekends too. Four of the weekday trains extend as far south as Gilroy. The service operates as CalTrain (California Department of Transportation) and there is a cross-platform transfer to Amtrak at San Jose.
San Francisco is also reached by a bus connection to the Amtrak Zephyr...I believe the bus connects at Oakland but check the timetable to be sure. Las Vegas lost Amtrak rail service in 1997, but there is a bus connection to the Barstow station (Southwest Chief) in California.
Passenger rail is not well advertised in the US, and the trains do not run on time that often, but it is an enjoyable way to travel.
Charlie McCandless Member # 939
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You used to be able to travel from San Francisco to Las Vegas by train the round-about way. You would change trains in Salt Lake City. However, the main reason this was not well patronized can be summed up in one word ~ Reno. The main reason to go to Las Vegas is to gamble. Why travel all that way when Reno is just the other side of Donner Pass. When I rode the Zephyr in 1979, I took the train on a Friday. It was packed with weekend gamblers bound for Reno. They drank all the alcohol on the train, making it a dry run east. I imagine it is the same way now. Hopefully Amtrak wised up and placed restock points to replenish supplies. You are right when you said the the United States is not a railway country, at least as far as passenger trains are concerned. The railroads tried to kill the passenger business in the 1960s. Those people driven from the rails naturally didn't give their children train rides. Now we have a sizable number of persons who don't know that passenger trains exist beyond the tourist lines.
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