Phil Anschutz offered the Coast to the State for $400 million back in the early 90's. And, my two old pals "Steel" Neil Petersen, then running the LACMTA, and Richard Katz, in the Legislature, tried their damnedest to get folks to take him up. Pete Wilson said no.

Yeah, buying this line, and running a LOSSAN (south) level passenger service all the way from SAC and SF to LA and San Diego, would carry one hell of a lot of trips. And, if the State bought it, I suspect that even the piss poor UP customer service could be better, especially if it were put out to bid for operation, by a more responsive short line operator.

What would UP want for it today? Who knows. But, I'm gonna bet it won't be the deal Phil offered us. I saw one "quick and dirty" "guess/estimate", to try and justify the purchase of the Coast Line as a transportation investment, that claimed that back then, just the coastal portion of the lands on the LOSSAN segment alone were worth somewhere north of $2 billion....

The failure to take up Anschutz on his offer to sell us the Coast Line, was one of the worst passenger rail opportunities lost and mistakes I saw made by CA in my 50 year career. I place it second, only to the ongoing completely disastrous taxpayer financed cluster-f#ck at the CAHSRA.