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What Online Ticketing can Mean for Rail Travel
For the last few years Amtrak has had online ticketing. This means that when you get your “ticket” from an Amtrak agent, you actually get a piece of paper with a bar code. You could also print out such a “ticket” at home online with Amtrak on your computer. On the train the conductors carry…
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Everybody Loves Trains: Just not in Their Back Yard!
When proposing a new High Speed Rail project, everything looks so sweet and simple when talking about artist’s conceptions and lines on a map. But as soon as property owners see those lines going through their property, then things stop looking so easy for promoters of High Speed Rail.
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Norwalk-Santa Fe Springs Metrolink Station: Future Intermodal Center?
The Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Station is roughly half way between downtown Los Angeles and Anaheim.
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Challenges Facing the Next CEO of Metrolink
There is a job opening for the next head of Metrolink which will be filled soon. Only those who seek challenges need apply. Metrolink has many problems, and some of them have been festering for years and ignored. Here is a short list of them.
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Taking the Train to and from the San Diego Airport
This February I took my vacation in Dublin, Ireland. As an experiment I decided to try taking the train from Oceanside where I live to the San Diego International Airport and back. One of the problems with taking public transportation is that the airports are often busy when there is little bus and rail transit…
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Some Observations on the Oxnard Metrolink Crash
Train wrecks are great breaking news stories for television because they are spectacular. I saw this happen first hand. I was in Dublin, Ireland at a McDonalds in the early afternoon on the 24th when it was still morning in California. A breaking live video feed was on the TV of what turned out to…
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Why Can’t Train Tickets be More like Plane Tickets?
I live in San Diego County. From San Diego International Airport, I can get to almost any part of the United States or the World. I would have to transfer at other airports to get to many of these places. But I can buy my tickets,often at a discount online and it is more convenient…
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Metrolink to Long Beach?
At the time of the start up of Metrolink in 1992, there were miles of secondary rail lines available for sale by the railroads. Right of way is the most difficult part of a railroad to secure. Many miles of these secondary rail lines were bought by local government before 2000 and many are now…
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Yet Another Bogus Charge by Opponents of CAHSR
One has to give credit to the opponents of the California High Speed Rail Project: they never give up.
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What’s next for Los Angeles Rail Transit?
By Noel T. Braymer By next year LA Metro will have Light Rail service running on the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica and on the Gold Line from east Pasadena to Azusa. By 2019 the Crenshaw Line should be running between LAX and the Expo Line. The Regional Connector subway extending the…