My peevish "reality check" aside, people like Amtrak. It has high name recognition. As a marketing vehicle, for rail travel, the Amtrak "brand" has been a phenomenal success...as a national rail system, not so much. I, in my former life, would have written exactly the same press release. But, the reality is that you and I, the CA taxpayer, are doing this, not Amtrak.

More weekend service is a recognition of the importance of that market segment. As have the myriad of complaints about all of the recent weekend shutdowns on LOSSAN in San Diego County. Hopefully, they don' have many of those coming in the busy summer travel season?

I did some work for a former local elected official, about 6 years ago, on the possibility of extending the LOSSAN IC corridor, with additional "express" services, through LAUPT from San Diego, directly to Santa Clarita, and Palmdale/Lancaster. This also included discussions of the current thru-way connecting buses (BAK to LV, LAUPT, Pasadena, San Bernardino, and how such services, including proposed SR14-US 395 connecting bus services to the high desert, Owens Valley, and Eastern Sierra communities, which could connect to the proposed rail service extensions.

It's just too bad, that these days, it can take up to four decades, to get even what many would consider some of the most obviously useful and even relatively "doable" improvements, actually done...