Re: Santa Barbaran
Author: Ken Scott
Date: 08-08-2012 - 17:24
My daughter lives in Santa Barbara and I in San Diego. My wife and I would take those early Amtrak trains to Santa Barbara almost every two months. The ride quality from LA to Santa Barbara was like a riding a bucking horse. The line was bolted rail and speeds could not have been more that 55mph. Delays caused by freight trains was a regular thing. In Santa Barbara, the south-bound SP Freight from the north would enter the station and wait for the south-bound AMTRAK to come north (west)from the storage track 4 blocks away. The Amtrak train would load as the SP freight would depart the station(the station had 2 through tracks). The Amtrak train would depart about 30 minutes later and follow the SP Freight. In those days, I think I remember the advertisements calling the train service as "extension of the San Diegan." It was an interesting time. How things changed when Amtrak-Caltrans brought in the Surfliner cars. As I understand it, SP agreed to the service if CalTrans would pay for track ungrades and more sidings. SP got the money and the upgrades were not performed. A few years after UP purchased SP, UP got pressure from the State of California to honor the contract with SP for new rail and signaling. It now is a faily smooth ride.