Olympics service.

When an agency has been tasked to provide additional service on a route and has failed to do so after twenty years there is a tendency to clutch at straws.  The 14-day straw blowing through Los Angeles in two years’ time is the combined Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Somehow, the rail agencies think, there is enough momentum towards making these events “car free” that there will be funds to patch together a train service along the coast route.  The Coast Rail Coordinating Council, LOSSAN and Caltrans Division of Rail are concocting something between them, and we’ll see whether these folks can make this happen.  I hear that consultants are already in the mix.  Don’t the professional staff….I won’t go there.

In the discussions that I have listened to, startlingly absent was any mention of the Coast Starlight.  Considering that Amtrak 11 and 14 used to run with 14 cars or more and now operate with only 8 the first thing that came to Steve, Jim and I* was to add capacity to the existing train.  Yes, you’ll need rolling stock and likely an extra locomotive, but it avoids timetable problems given that the infrastructure between San Jose and Santa Barbara has seen no significant improvement.  It also avoids having to negotiate a new deal with Union Pacific.  We all know of course that the real hope is that having made a deal with all and sundry to run an additional train that it will become a permanent feature.  What’s wrong with that?  Nothing, provided that the resources, sidings, suitable intercity rolling stock with comfortable seats for a long journey, maintenance facilities, connecting buses and FOOD SERVICE are in place.  This is not the task for a four-car hydrogen powered multiple unit!

*Steve Roberts, James Smith and myself, the RailPAC ad hoc subcommittee.

The Far North

A good friend recently had to make a journey from the Sacramento area to Yreka to retrieve a broken-down car.  Coincidentally I’ve recently been receiving emails from a Redding resident complaining about lack of service of any kind in the I-5 corridor.  In digging through the service options to Yreka I found only one.  The Coast Starlight, departing Sacramento at 2349 (11.49pm) and arriving Dunsmuir at 0458 (04.58am) at a dark, unstaffed station with no rest rooms.  You have then to wait until 0830 for the Cascade Flyer bus service to Yreka.  The nearest coffee shop doesn’t open until 0800.  This level of “service” is all too typical for rural California.  Other states would think that we are lucky to have anything at all. 

Paucity of service is why RailPAC campaigned to open up the Thruway buses to non-rail intermediate passengers and you’d think that, seven years after the passage of SB 742, the relevant agencies would have acted swiftly to put this legislation into practice.  Sadly, this has yet to happen.  Growing communities like King City, Gonzales and Salinas are under served (Gonzales is about to add 3000 plus houses) and the minimal Greyhound service is frequently sold out. 

Diesel Excellence – 50 years ago.

In 1976 British Railways introduced the 125mph “High Speed Train”.  The train consisted of a power car at each end with a luggage compartment (Guard’s van), and up to 8 BR Mark 3 coaches including a restaurant car and both first and second class accommodation.  Seats were aligned with the windows! The seats were well designed and comfortable, with padded armrests, the air conditioning was quiet but effective, and the ride was smooth.  These trains have only recently been retired, having clocked up some amazing mileage (for a small island!).  While this all sounds too good to be true I can prove it to you.  The 125 Group has preserved a train and actually runs it on special trips at the designed 125mph.  www.125group.org.uk.  Why can’t new trains be like this?  Well, the FRA wants you to add 10-15 tons per car for starters.  I’d rather the money were spent on crash avoidance and not the cost of all that steel and the lifetime fuel spent hauling it around. You can’t have comfortable seats because we’ve spent all the money on consultants and ADA access.  Automobiles have safety regulations to meet but they seem to manage to build a comfortable seat. I’m anxious to hear what the result of litigation between a passenger and United Airlines about window seats will be.  Every ‘plane has a couple of pairs of seat rows with blank walls instead of windows.  Are the seats by these walls “window seats”.  What if Amtrak were to institute numbered seat reservations?  How many window seats have windows?    

Needless to say, this is not an advocacy for diesel.  In the UK in 1975 the electrification program was stalled and both the northeastern and western main lines were diesel only.  They have since been electrified and the replacements for HST are electric or hybrid. There is no long-term substitute for electrification, preferably powered without using fossil fuels, and better yet tied into a national electricity distribution grid to make the best use of solar and wind power. 

Metrolink Budget – On the Brink of Disaster

As I write, Metrolink has just announced a fare increase, the first in about ten years.  At the same time service cuts are planned because the counties will not provide enough operating funds for the current timetable. Metrolink’s plan to pivot from mostly Los Angeles based commuter service to a broad based all day regional service will in effect be reversed and off peak and weekend services will be slashed.  This is spite of the fact that these “off peak” trips were the growth business. 

Lightly loaded train A (say 50 passengers) is to be cancelled.  Train B, on which perhaps half of those 50 use for their return trip, may lose 25 passengers, so that eventually it too may become a candidate for annulment.  The result is a downward spiral for all services.  I’m sure that Metrolink management understands all this, but I’m not sure that the Board does.  More to the point, I don’t think that the paymasters at the counties really care.  Metrolink has always been an afterthought.  If the counties have any loose change in their pockets after meeting their local needs then they might drop it in the Metrolink poor box, but otherwise they hope that Metrolink can fund itself with grants.  I have no doubt that Board members are appointed by the counties with strict instructions not to spend county funds!

In our opinion, nothing could make it more clear than the current budget crisis that, at least in southern California, regional rail is in the wrong hands.  RailPAC will be working for change in governance in the new year to meet our objective of a regional level structure above the county level and predominantly funded by the State.  Watch this space.

Paul Dyson
VP Government Affairs