The economy is not roaring, but it is going up at around 3% per year, and inflation is down to effectively zero, so agencies which depend on sales tax revenues for transit, are finally seeing real revenue increasing. (Riverside County was down nearly 15% in 2009 and has taken five years to fully recover....). So they apparently now have enough money for New Years service. Too bad they aren't increasing regular service needed to get people out of their cars when they're not drunk....?

Rail traffic is up in container and general industrial traffic, but way off in coal tonnage, and now in oil and sand. So older, less efficient units are going into storage. Yep, that's the way it works.

It is also winter, and I seem to dimly recall, that after the Christmas boom, long before the container was king, it seemed that traffic usually slowed quite a bit in winter, and you got laid off about this time of year..... There was a lot more Spring and
Summer ag traffic (like beets and perishable) back then, which accentuated that seasonal swing.

Of course that's back when a young laid off fireman could have a friend clerking at the Azusa depot just fill out the RR unemployment card and turn it in, so you could go surfing in Mexico for a couple of months, without having to come back every two weeks......

Is the statute of limitations up on that petty misdemeanor, yet?