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Re: Potential for new train between Northern & Southern California
Author: BOB2
Date: 02-26-2018 - 14:21
We have no cars so much of this is mute. We failed to deliver any cars for eight, yes that's eight years, now.
I rode the Coast Ghost a couple of times back in the day, when I was still with the SOP, because I like trains, and got 50% off of the sleeper. I went to a CRC convention, and a UTU meeting. It passed many stops that generate plenty of day trips in the middle of the night, generating almost none. It was an "am" "commuter train" from Santa Barbara, Oxnard, and Simi Valley, into LA on the way back....
The Coast Ghost was an ill fated attempt to demonstrate something (I'm just not sure what?). And, hindsight always being 100% correct, all of that equipment would have been better used to extend LOSSAN back then to SB, and add more frequencies on LOSSAN south, because the loadings and revenue numbers were pretty bad as I seem to recall.
Back in the real world, in my second career, I had to teach some FHWA/FTA classes in Davis, for half a day, I flew up, rented a car in Sacramento, went to UCE, spent until mid afternoon, and was back to Burbank on the 4:30 with a drink in my hand. It cost less, and took way less time. Time is money....
There is a significant potential for middle distance all day "through" service on all the Coast line, as LOSSAN north has demonstrated. But. this would serve trips along the corridor, between medium sized urban centers, and into and out of the large urban centers of SFO/OA/SJC/SAC and the LOSSAN/LA regional market.
This "daylight" Coast line service needs only to compete with very high local air shuttle fares and auto travel times on the now often congested coastal corridor. Connecting the multiple markets would allow for through trips, but more likely lead to more trips to and from intermediate points, than from end the points. But, as anyone who has ridden the Coast will tell you, it will attract more IC "tourist" demand for that feature, (which is not visible at night).
But, as I noted above, there are no cars. So it doesn't matter how many trains you want to add. The controversy about the Santa Barbara AM "commute" schedule arrival is about the need to turn a set, to make it possible, eliminating a through connection from LOSSAN south until much later in the morning. Congestion and a better economy have contributed to standing room demand of late, on the State Corridors peak trains, just not cars, and/or no additional trains, to meet that demand.
More cars? Caltrans Division of Fail.......any news on that?
I rode the Coast Ghost a couple of times back in the day, when I was still with the SOP, because I like trains, and got 50% off of the sleeper. I went to a CRC convention, and a UTU meeting. It passed many stops that generate plenty of day trips in the middle of the night, generating almost none. It was an "am" "commuter train" from Santa Barbara, Oxnard, and Simi Valley, into LA on the way back....
The Coast Ghost was an ill fated attempt to demonstrate something (I'm just not sure what?). And, hindsight always being 100% correct, all of that equipment would have been better used to extend LOSSAN back then to SB, and add more frequencies on LOSSAN south, because the loadings and revenue numbers were pretty bad as I seem to recall.
Back in the real world, in my second career, I had to teach some FHWA/FTA classes in Davis, for half a day, I flew up, rented a car in Sacramento, went to UCE, spent until mid afternoon, and was back to Burbank on the 4:30 with a drink in my hand. It cost less, and took way less time. Time is money....
There is a significant potential for middle distance all day "through" service on all the Coast line, as LOSSAN north has demonstrated. But. this would serve trips along the corridor, between medium sized urban centers, and into and out of the large urban centers of SFO/OA/SJC/SAC and the LOSSAN/LA regional market.
This "daylight" Coast line service needs only to compete with very high local air shuttle fares and auto travel times on the now often congested coastal corridor. Connecting the multiple markets would allow for through trips, but more likely lead to more trips to and from intermediate points, than from end the points. But, as anyone who has ridden the Coast will tell you, it will attract more IC "tourist" demand for that feature, (which is not visible at night).
But, as I noted above, there are no cars. So it doesn't matter how many trains you want to add. The controversy about the Santa Barbara AM "commute" schedule arrival is about the need to turn a set, to make it possible, eliminating a through connection from LOSSAN south until much later in the morning. Congestion and a better economy have contributed to standing room demand of late, on the State Corridors peak trains, just not cars, and/or no additional trains, to meet that demand.
More cars? Caltrans Division of Fail.......any news on that?
