Rumblings around the Greater Los Angeles area are saying that Metrolink has a desire to extend its service area all the way to San Diego and, as part of the agreement, Coaster trains would extend their service area north of Oceanside. Still to be ironed out would be the issue of either qualifying Metrolink crews over the territory south of Oceanside or having lower-paid Herzog Coaster employees operate the trains over Coaster territory. That thought is not sitting well with the higher-paid Metrolink operating crews who are actually employed by Amtrak. Amtrak replaced Veolia / Connex as the sub-contracted supplier of the train and engine crews awhile ago.

So Metrolink could conceivably run a so-called "commuter" train from Montalvo or Lancaster all the way to San Diego. That's quite a distance. Mileage-wise, would that be setting a record for a commuter train in the U.S.A.? At what point does a commuter train become a regional, medium-distance train? There's also talk of Metrolink instituting a snack car / bar car, similar to what's offered on Vancouver's WEST COAST EXPRESS and on certain trains on Metro North in the New York-Connecticut service area.

If I didn't know better, I'd say Metrolink is trying to push Amtrak's PACIFIC SURFLINERS off onto a side track and steal a lot, or all, of their clientele. And that's made all the more easier when you're in control of the dispatching and can decide which trains have priority. Amtrak had better sit up and take notice of some of this if it wants to maintain a presence in Southern California other than the SUNSET, SOUTHWEST CHIEF and COAST STARLIGHT. But, then again, maybe this is just a massive political manipulation and the budget cutters back east in Washington and up in Sacramento WANT all of this to happen. The mindset of the Feds now is to try and spin all of this stuff off onto the state and multi-county agencies.

I just hope Metrolink isn't thinking of using those dreaded new Korean-made Rotem cars for the service. From a standpoint of passenger comfort, those things certainly leave a lot to be desired. People are even bad-mouthing them in the monthly Metrolink newsletter.