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Re: Potential for new train between Northern & Southern California
Author: wandering wonderer
Date: 03-02-2018 - 10:23
BOB2 provided a good executive summary of why a daytime train beats overnight, especially with limited funds and equipment. Might also be of interest that night trains seem to be dying even in Europe; people prefer day trains (HSR) or flights that allow them to spend the night in real beds.
As for real life, current flying time between the LA area (5 airports) and the Bay Area (3 airports) or Sacramento is around an hour, plus about 1.5 hour at the airport beforehand (and your local drive/transit time) and (if it's a day trip without checked luggage) access time between the airport and where you're really going. So overall call it 3-4 hours door-door between common points. The early morning and early evening Southwest flights tend to be full - they're commute buses.
The overnight Amtrak buses on the Coast are interesting. However, they're slow. The fastest public ground transport between N & S Calif. appears to be that SF-Santa Monica sleeper bus and the San Joaquin train with bus from Bakersfield to LA (7/day including one that is effectively overnight) - 8-9 hours end to end. Greyhound/Bolt/Megabus all start at about 10 hours. Yes, you can drive it in 6-7 hours if you choose arrival and departure times carefully to minimize commute traffic, but it's no fun any more: I-5 and 99 are like LA commute traffic with bumper-bumper trucks, so the old days of setting the cruise on 85 or 90 are gone. Plus the potholes...and the lack of sleep overnight.
Anyway, a night train is a fun idea, but a lot of other trains would provide more useful transportation and should be done before a basic night train.
Oh yes, the rebuild idea for more cars: no dice. Yes, you could in principle fix them up, but they're still *old cars* - limited service life and relatively high maintenance cost (where do you get the parts for the old El Cap cars, and are there any reports on maintenance cost for the refurb Comets now in service?). New cars, with proper maintenance, will be good for 30+ years.
As for real life, current flying time between the LA area (5 airports) and the Bay Area (3 airports) or Sacramento is around an hour, plus about 1.5 hour at the airport beforehand (and your local drive/transit time) and (if it's a day trip without checked luggage) access time between the airport and where you're really going. So overall call it 3-4 hours door-door between common points. The early morning and early evening Southwest flights tend to be full - they're commute buses.
The overnight Amtrak buses on the Coast are interesting. However, they're slow. The fastest public ground transport between N & S Calif. appears to be that SF-Santa Monica sleeper bus and the San Joaquin train with bus from Bakersfield to LA (7/day including one that is effectively overnight) - 8-9 hours end to end. Greyhound/Bolt/Megabus all start at about 10 hours. Yes, you can drive it in 6-7 hours if you choose arrival and departure times carefully to minimize commute traffic, but it's no fun any more: I-5 and 99 are like LA commute traffic with bumper-bumper trucks, so the old days of setting the cruise on 85 or 90 are gone. Plus the potholes...and the lack of sleep overnight.
Anyway, a night train is a fun idea, but a lot of other trains would provide more useful transportation and should be done before a basic night train.
Oh yes, the rebuild idea for more cars: no dice. Yes, you could in principle fix them up, but they're still *old cars* - limited service life and relatively high maintenance cost (where do you get the parts for the old El Cap cars, and are there any reports on maintenance cost for the refurb Comets now in service?). New cars, with proper maintenance, will be good for 30+ years.
