With Oakland in the Super Bowl, would Amtrak be open to the idea of running a special train Oakland - San Diego (and return)? This would be A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to put rail service back onthe Front Page of every (!) newspaper and TV channel in the Bay Area. Waiting a day or two to meet and discuss this before announcing anything would blow it, so RIGHT NOW is decision time.
How about it?
------------------ Dave Jnsson Sierra Pacific Rail, Inc.
Posted by mr williams (Member # 1928) on :
Sounds a great idea - but if Amtrak are anything like the UK rail companies, then there's no chance! There's a huge furore over here at the moment as the main rail company for South Wales have announced they are annulling all trains after 7.00pm on the evening of the Wales vs England Rugby match in Cardiff (expected attendance, 72,000). The match finishes at 7.15pm and the logic is that as approximately 25,000 people would want to travel back from the main rail station in Cardiff it would be a Health & Safety risk...the fact that they have been doing it for 100 years without incident seems to have by-passed them. It's more like the fact that the match has been put back 3 hours from it's normal time for television, few rail services run on saturday evenings in that area and they just can't be bothered to make the effort. Rail companies the world over love shooting themselves in the foot.....
Posted by tubaallen (Member # 2057) on :
I would think so....but if Amtrak hasn't already planned it, I'm afraid it's probably too late to get started.
Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :
There is no Amtrak station near the stadium. A bus ride would be required to get to the game from the Amtrak station.
Reggie
Posted by Kairho (Member # 1567) on :
Amtrak does other charters for colleges and such. And they do know how to contract with local bus service (and lots of non-local trips, too). Although it's probably too late for a sluggish organization like Amtrak to respond, it certainly is a good idea.
Posted by john1082 (Member # 2068) on :
The ride from OAK to SAN would run close to 12 hours, perhaps more; with an afternoon kick-off time, you'd need to leave the bay area the night before to be certain of getting to the stadium on time.
With tickets costing perhaps $1,000 apiece or more, how many Oakland fans from the bay area would (A) Be able to afford the ticket?, and (B) Want to put up with an all-night Amtrak ride in a coach seat?
A three or four hour trip to a college game would be fun - Cal has a train to Big Game every time it's played in Palo Alto. But that isn't an overnight excursion.
[This message has been edited by john1082 (edited 01-20-2003).]
Posted by tubaallen (Member # 2057) on :
Well, I don't think this is realistic....but just for argument....think about how much these people are paying for their super bowl tickets in the first place. I don't know if price would be a matter to them.
Posted by john1082 (Member # 2068) on :
Price isn't the issue. Time and convinience are. I don't think that there are that many Oakland fans that can afford to go to the game - at least not at the ticket prices that we've been hearig about here.
If you do have the buck to buy a ticket, Southwest can get you there in 90 minutes or less. And back again after the game as well. The train would entail 20 - 24 hours of riding up and down the coast in a coach, in the dark. How many people for a special train? 500 perhaps? You won't find 500 people willing to put up with the hassle.
Posted by Kairho (Member # 1567) on :
I think the price argument is quite valid; I didn't realize those tickets were so high. But I don't think the time/convenience is because I mentioned the charter only because I read an article about Amtrak having put together special trips for large groups from the east coast to the midwest, necessitating an overnight sleeper. For a party, people will put up with extreme inconvenience!
I'm wracking my brain trying to remember where I read it and will provide the source. But it was apparently a great coup for some marketing guy there. It was an add-on to some existing train, not a special.
Admittedly, I'm not familiar with the schedules and other aspects of California travel, and am not proposing such, just tossing out an idea.
Posted by coach34135 (Member # 1979) on :
quote:Originally posted by Dave Jansson: With Oakland in the Super Bowl, would Amtrak be open to the idea of running a special train Oakland - San Diego (and return)? This would be A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to put rail service back onthe Front Page of every (!) newspaper and TV channel in the Bay Area. Waiting a day or two to meet and discuss this before announcing anything would blow it, so RIGHT NOW is decision time.
How about it?
Yeah run the train thru the Loop...yeah!!! It would suck because you can't run thru the Loop. I wouldnt trust the bus service...
Posted by Kairho (Member # 1567) on :
Found It !
Trains magazine, December, 2002 issue.
They discuss several successful football specials. Portland-Seattle (186 Amtrak miles), Albany-Buffalo (300), Chicago-Champagne (129). They have been successes and the latter sells for $875 including game ticket. Big rolling parties.
Oakland-San Diego is 602 miles so that is a different kettle of fish, with additional considerations. But betting on the public's willingness to party, I think it would work, even at $1500.
Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :
The comments about trip duration, price, etc are all valid. There are still many Raiders fans in the LA area; maybe they could charter a car (or two) to run with one of the Surfliners from LA+Fullerton to San Diego. That would be a more realistic trip duration (2.5-3 hrs each way) and would not need special scheduling.
Posted by trainman1 (Member # 1392) on :
quote:Originally posted by reggierail: There is no Amtrak station near the stadium. A bus ride would be required to get to the game from the Amtrak station.
Better than a bus ride through the game traffic, charter a San Diego Trolley train set to get all the Amtrak passengers to the stadium.
(The trolley is an across-the-platform transfer at the San Diego Amtrak station, and then it's about a 15-minute ride to the Qualcomm Stadium stop, which is steps away from the stadium entrances.)
Posted by MPALMER (Member # 125) on :
The San Diego Union Tribune (Wed 1/22) said there will be special Coaster service. For those out of the area, Coaster is a commuter service that runs between Oceanside and San Diego. There are extra trains running for the NFL Experience in San Diego this week. On game day, there will be four southbounds leaving Oceanside between 8:15am and 12:05pm. It does not say if all enroute stops are made. Returning on game day there will be northbound trains at 8:05pm from downtown San Diego and 8:40pm originating at Old Town. An earlier post meantioned cross-platform transfers between train and trolley at Downtown; that is also the case at Old Town. (Coaster stops at Old Town; Amtrak does not) MP
Posted by The Chief (Member # 2172) on :
John 1082 writes: With tickets costing perhaps $1,000 apiece or more, how many Oakland fans from the bay area would (A) Be able to afford the ticket?, and (B) Want to put up with an all-night Amtrak ride in a coach seat?
To which The Chief replies Raiders fans are trying to figure out where San Diego is.
Posted by V/line (Member # 2199) on :
Hi everyone, In Australia where we live, our games is Australian Football http://afl.com.au/ The Grand Final played in Melbourne in September last year, was attended by approx. 95,000 people. The two teams, one from Melbourne the other from Adelaide in the next state of South Australia was attended by many who took the 7 to 8 hour, 500 mile drive along a largely 2 lane road, we only have one interstate highway here in Australia. The others flew OR took the train. "The Overland", http://www.gsr.com.au/overland/
The overnight train was 33 carriages long,800 passengers travelled, several lounge cars included all decorated in the colours of the Adelaide team. Three classes of accomodation(1st & 2nd sitting & sleeper)was included & all in all excellent reports were received about the service. It can be done & done successfully...Mike
Posted by john1082 (Member # 2068) on :
The Australian example is illuminating, but not dispositive. The train ride from Oakland to San Diego would be in excess of 12 hours, probably 14 or so. And another 12 to 14 hours to return to the bay area. Amtrak doesn't have spare equipment to run a special, so you would be part of a normal train.
With a minimum of 400 seats an hour from Bay area airports to San Diego at, say $100 roundtrip, a 24 hour train in coach seating trip sounds less and less appealing. And this assumes that Amtrak has enough seats.
Then again, driving your own car would take 8 hours each way, 4 to 6 hours less than taking the train.