I'm pretty sure there were 4 SJ round trips/day by the mid-1990s when I was living in Fresno. Would occasionally use it for meetings in Sacramento, on the bus connection to Stockton. They were talking about a direct Sacramento train for much of the 1990s but it didn't happen until after I moved away.

The buses in those days were not the luxury specials Amtrak uses now. They were whatever the charter operator could scare up, some of which were pretty antique. They'd have 2 buses, generally, from Stockton, one stopping in Lodi and the other direct via I-5 to Sacramento. Was on one of the latter that couldn't get over 50 mph heading north into a stiff wind, with the driver's "music" blaring from his ghetto blaster. Eh, we got there. Didn't make up much time that day, though.

Then, there were the early days of the F59PHIs when they seemed to break down as much as they ran. A couple of times, the train ran with a BNSF on the point after a breakdown, and we were late those days because the train was limited to 70 with a freight engine on it. And I got the same consist on the way home (last train in the evening) - I guess they turned the whole thing in Oakland and sent the BNSF home to Bakersfield the same way it came.

The Olde Dayze ... leave Fresno at 0700 for a day of meetings, return (if lucky and we didn't break down or run into anything) about 2200. Still, better than driving on 99, especially in winter fog, and (if on time) only about an hour longer.

And yes, that was Amtrak, not ACE. I know. Funny, though, Amtrak considered the SJ to be a "commuter train".