We took my GF's granddaughters down to Solana Beach yesterday on their first train ride, and handed them ofo the kids.

Amtrak left LAUPT 5 minutes late, arrived 20 minutes late, on a schedule that is so padded that it was embarrassing. On both the trip down and the trip back we only reach 90 twice and most of it was covered at a speed that made the Grand Canyon ride we took in April look like the Shinkansen.......

Today we have some service from LAX to SD scheduled at over 3 hours one way, for the 126 mile trip. In 1941 the same trip could be made in under 2:30 minutes using train orders with virtually none of the miles of double track we have today. We have way more trains, and way more stops and stations on the commuter services, but I was appalled.

I worked with folks at American High Speed Rail back in 1980 who were criticized for "only" proposing a 1:30 schedule for that project. As we spend billions of taxpayer dollars on the fiasco in Fresno, we appear to be unwilling to spend enough on trains that were, yesterday, nearly standing room only, in the midday, on a weekday, in the most congested intercity corridor in the US. And, that is appalling.

What also needs fixing is the lackluster attitude about on-time performance by operators and employee's (we actually had to stop at Commerce to unload a Starlate passenger who accidentally board the Surfliner, because at tem minutes to scheduled departure, the Starlate was still not in LAX for boarding).

I also got a chance to read TRAC's latest newspaper "edition of "the world according the Rich Tolmach" and wondered why California can't have at least one functional pro-rail advocacy group, instead to two dysfunctional cults of personality like TRAC and Railpac?