Finally, it appears those poor Talgo trainsets that were rejected by Governor Scott Walker of WI may have found a home. Several sources have reported that those Talgos have been leased by CA and will be assigned to the Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo corridor.
The Talgos are an excellent choice for the winding California coast route. One article states that the Talgos will shave 25 minutes off the running time between LA and SLO. Hopefully that prediction will come true. I've ridden the entire Surfliner/Starlight route several times and the Talgos will be a big improvement over the California/Superliner or single level equipment currently used on the route: bigger windows, faster acceleration/deceleration, higher speed through the numerous curves (subject to UP approval) and low level boarding (compared to the single level trains). The only drawback might be that some of the station platforms might be too short for the added length.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
From Crowne Plaza Piitter Salzburg--
I guess with the Nips having no end date, California is desperate for cars. Kind of a " one's ready the other's there" situation. Let's hope for a happy marriage.
Posted by sbalax (Member # 2801) on :
Vincent--
That's something to look forward to for us on the line. I think SBA's platform should be long enough -- it handles the Starlight.
GBN--
When does your homeward journey begin? We fly on Sunday SBA-SFO-LHR.
Frank in sunny and warm SBA
Posted by Vincent206 (Member # 15447) on :
Any platform that handles the Starlight will be long enough for the Talgos. The WI Talgos were built for the Hiawatha Corridor and I don't remember if there is a bistro or lounge car included in the consist. If not, I hope the trainsets can be modified to include food and a lounge car.
Posted by MargaretSPfan (Member # 3632) on :
Do the Talgo cars still have passive pendulation? I ask because they sure did during their promotional tour back in 1994, when I rode them from Sacramento to Oakland, on the return leg of their Oakland-Sacramento Northern California tour.
That passive pendulation gave those cars a very poor ride quality, because the cars would sway a lot every time there were any imperfections in the track.
In contrast, the two SP streamliner-era cars in the train rode superbly -- and this was on jointed (stick) rail. I rode in the SP cars from Oakland to Sacramento via Altamont Pass, and in the Talgo cars from Sacramento back to Oakland on the Cal-P.
(FWIW -- The ICE cars that were out here back in 1993 on a demonstration tour rode like a dream on the so-so jointed Caltrain track between San Francisco and San Jose.)
The Talgo cars had to get a safety waiver before they could operate in this country because they did not meet tough US crashworthiness standards.
I wish we could get passenger cars that would be duplicates of the beautiful and very comfortable cars that were built by Budd and ACF and Pullman-Standard in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
From Starbucks @ Hbf Salzburg (don't go near 'em Stateside) --
Frank, homeward is Monday UA953 with seat 6A (unobstructed flightseeing), and my "day trip" touring is done. I wanted to go to St. Anton am Arlberg simply is is one of the "sims" on MSTS (is that sim ever real life!) and my Sister has been there. Vienna again as last year, I never saw the city. But this year, I saw plenty on foot. However I wanted to see the Third Man Ferris Wheel, but Mr. Google had me walking in circles and, after 8 some miles walking, this 75 year old had "run out of gas". I took a taxicab back to Hbf - and there went all my €, save the housekeeper's tip which I have "sequestered". There was a €35 unexpected in St. Anton for which I had to listen to "our WiFi doesn't work, you'll have to pay cash". So I have €2 to my name, but I'm not worried - and I ain't going somewhere to pay through the nose to have some US $ exchanged.
Concerts the next three days, Cleveland Orchestra tonight (funny.how I see them perform anywhere but Cleveland), Vienna Philharmonic matinee tomorrow, and Sunday a matinee of the Mozarteum.
Of further interest, seems like both Vienna and Salzburg claim "Wolfie" as theirs. The waitress at Lunch (a music student she said) "we have friendly rivalry with Salzburg over claiming, of course we have everyone else!!!".
Finally, and I sent a photo of this to several of those here who know me face to face, guess who was "the man in Seat 61" aboard RJ66 last evening?
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Saw your photo and enjoyed GBN...... have just wrapped up the first week of my 26th year and am just now catching up from the past week.
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
Riding a Talgo up to San Luis Obisbo would, I think, be very nice.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
quote:I ain't going somewhere to pay through the nose to have some US $ exchanged.
Having shuttled back and forth between US and points in Asia for a good chunk of the last 25 years, I will say that I found it always better to do your currency conversion on that end. In fact, the buy/sell rates are fairly close. Currency conversions on the US end are a form of robbery. Don't know what the picture is when the other end is in Europe.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
Mr. Harris, regarding your immediate thought, there are likely much cheaper ways to obtain foreign exchange than through your Local hometown bank. For my trip last August, €100 cost $120.51 when the posted rate was about $1.12. So it was $8.51 for the convenience of having the stuff ready to go.
For the two cards I used on the trip, American Express is quite "up front" worldwide - the posted rate when the transaction hits plus a 2.7% service fee. Capital One Visa loves to say, just like the friendly Local bank, "we have no service fees". They build their "fee" into their exchange rate.
But everything of consequence I did over there, hotel, OBB train tickets, concert tickets, restaurants, were through AmEx.
Posted by Gilbert B Norman (Member # 1541) on :
"Meanwhile, back in the States", a Bob Johnston report appearing in December TRAINS states that the California acquisition of the surplus Talgo equipment is "not exactly" a done deal.
To summarize the copyrighted material not available at the web - even to subscribers - the significant logistical and cost details to be negotiated (Fair Use paraphrase) are adequate maintenance facilities, maintenance agreements, route-specific testing, color, café, and Business Class changes.
So there is a way to go.
Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :
quote:Originally posted by Gilbert B Norman: Mr. Harris, regarding your immediate thought, there are likely much cheaper ways to obtain foreign exchange than through your Local hometown bank. For my trip last August, €100 cost $120.51 when the posted rate was about $1.12. So it was $8.51 for the convenience of having the stuff ready to go.
My method, if I have to need some local currency immediately on arrival to change my best guess at the airport from which my overseas leg starts. Usually there is a money exchange facility at the arrival side of the airport on the overseas end which will have about as good a rate as you can get, but sometimes that does not work and you don't want to be stuck with nothing but US$ when you are looking to get something fairly small on the overseas end where cash is needed. Then, convert back from local to US on the overseas end. However, sometimes you can get caught without a handy facility to do so. That just happened to me leaving Singapore due to early in the day departure, so I ended up getting back to the US with something like $80 Singapore in pocket.
Back when I was working full time in Asia I usually kept enough currency for all stops in pocket to avoid the need to do conversions urgently. You can also be surprised by finding some currencies non-convertible in some places. It may no longer be true, as it was 20 years ago, but I could not get Taiwan $ converted to Yen on the Japanese end, and I did not have much in the way of US$ in pocket. Mastercard saved the day.
Posted by mr williams (Member # 1928) on :
If CA does get these trains is there any chance of the long talked about Coast Daylight ever seeing the light of day?