West Coast Passenger Trains from Vancouver to San Diego, a Revolution Has Occurred
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MAP OF THE MONTH West Coast passenger trains From Vancouver to San Diego, a revolution has occurred. Let someone else sit in traffic! What you’re seeing here is a transfor- Waterfront Sta. 10 mation that’s nothing short of remarkable. Coquitlam WEST COAST B R I T I S H 2 Pacific Central Sta. Amtrak to Portland SAN FRANCISCO Twenty years ago, a map of West Coast EXPRESS ER C O L U M B I A SACRAMENTO 10 VIA to BAY AREA VANCOUVER 2 (CPR) OUV y Amtrak short-haul passenger trains would’ve been Toronto F VANC 7 RAILROADS to Chicago AMTRAK r Mission little more than a blank page. Back then, as sion Cit er Riv City (CPR) 32 Amtrak provided minimal service between CASCADES (CN) Mis (UP) 2 (UP) AMTRAK Oakland and Bakersfield, Calif., and be- er Jct (CN) C A N. CAPITOL 4 VANCOUVER 338 TRAINS tween Portland and Seattle, though it did . U. S. A. CORRIDOR AREA 2 AMTRAK field 14 San Diegans a day to and from Los 1,734 MILES SAN Angeles. The only commuter trains, San Bellingham Auburn Not shown on map: One daily Based on December 2006 timetables 2 JOAQUINS Jose to San Francisco, a service dating from from Amtrak and its state sponsors, and round trip run by VIA Rail Canada Downtown/ on Vancouver Island between Cabral Sta. 1864, were kept running with state money. the local agencies that manage commuter SACRAMENTO 4 Victoria and Courtenay, B.C. Train 40 Martinez STOCKTON These maps chart the 338 weekday com- services and the Capitol Corridor. PUGET was suspended in 2011. muter and intercity passenger trains that In 1995, Amtrak extended intercity SOUND 4 8 San Joaquin Everett St. Sta. 12 trains north of L.A. to San Luis Obispo; AREA Everett OAKLAND Jack London Square today serve West Coast cities from San Di- Amtrak SAN ego to Vancouver, B.C. The network totals south of Portland to Eugene, Ore.; and to Chicago FRANCISCO Coliseum 8 (BNSF) STOCKTON 20 1,734 route-miles! Train counts (revenue north of Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. Metro- 14 Elmhurst OAKLAND moves only) are from public timetables in link added lines to Riverside in 1993, SEATTLE 14 effect in December 2006. Oceanside in 1994, a San Bernardino- SAN FRANCISCO (UP) ALTAMONT COMMUTER Omitted from the tabulations are six Oceanside route in 1995, and a Riverside- SOUNDER Niles EXPRESS 12 Newark overnight trains operated by Amtrak and Fullerton-L.A. service in 2002, while ex- Tacoma 14 / 8 4 4 96 VIA Rail Canada, although they do extend tending the reach of its three original lines. SAN JOSE Santa Clara the network to riders beyond the corridors In 2003, Sounder began running north of 96 / 14 / 8 SAN JOSE Diridon Sta. and in some cases supplement Amtrak’s Seattle. Caltrain, under the management of Gilroy CALTRAIN Tamien intercity service. (For example, the Coast a tri-county agency, pushed south to Gilroy SEATTLE King St. Sta. W A S H I N G T O N 48 8 Starlight’s morning departures provide an in 1992 and rebuilt its railroad to launch Fresno 6 extra frequency southbound from Seattle the “Baby Bullet” express trains in 2004. AMTRAK to Eugene, Ore., and northbound from Los In the mid-2000s, the Pacific Surfliner AMTRAK AMTRAK CASCADES CASCADES ALTAMONT COMMUTER EXPRESS Gilroy Angeles to San Luis Obispo, Calif.) Also was Amtrak’s second-busiest route, carry- 8 8 SAN JOAQUINS AMTRAK CORRIDOR SERVICES (UP) omitted is VIA’s now-suspended Vancou- ing 2.6 million riders in 2006, and the Cap- CALTRAIN ver Island service, a single daily round trip itol Corridor was third, with 1.2 million COASTER 12 made with Rail Diesel Cars. riders. Metrolink and Caltrain each moved Tacoma METROLINK While 300 trains may seem like a drop about 10 million riders in 2006. Dome Sta. Vancouver (BNSF) SOUNDER in the bucket compared with the 3,000 If there’s a downside to all this expan- Tacoma Amtrak WEST COAST EXPRESS PORTLAND to Chicago C A L I F O R N I A commuter trains that run in the Northeast sion, it’s that many of the passenger routes 8 AMTRAK LONG-DISTANCE [see the July 2005 TRAINS “Map of the are owned by freight railroads, whose traf- Union Sta. P A Bakersfield Month”], the rise of the West Coast passen- fic has also grown sharply. Millions of dol- C I F I San Luis Obispo ger train has been a success story for a re- lars in Amtrak, state, and local money has P Lancaster C LOS ANGELES O paid for capacity improvements and more A C Amtrak gion in love with its cars. Of course, it was 4 AREA E C A to Chicago N intolerable highway congestion that passenger-train slots. Still, on-time perfor- I O R E G O N 4 er F sa t a s as prompted Western states to look to the pas- mance suffers on some busy routes, and I e (BNSF) C Lanc senger train as an alternative. It took vision without expensive investments, some lines a Clarit O ia Princ ant 22 V 18 and leadership from politicians and public won’t come close to matching the train fre- S C Goleta o administrators at the state and county level quencies found in Chicago and the East. E alv to get the trains going — and a commit- Then again, the East could learn a thing A 10 Mont ment from citizens, who voted “yes” to or two from the trains out West. Along the N Eugene o 24 AMTRAK METROLINK (UP) alv 16 METROLINK bond issues, gasoline and sales tax hikes, Pacific, lifestyle matters, and passenger- 20 PACIFIC San Bernardino Mont 6 and clean-air legislation that included train amenities such as big windows, WiFi Amtrak to Sacramento 10 Burbank (BNSF) SURFLINER LOS ANGELES (UP) th 10 10 or Amtrak funding for passenger rail. service, bike racks, water fountains, and — Moorpark sw 44 Laguna tt 34 San Bernardino Niguel to New Orleans Like flowers blooming in the desert, most important! — cup-holders will be a Chat asse 118 34 B new services appeared: Amtrak’s Capitol welcome surprise to anyone who has ever LOS ANGELES 22 20 (UP) San Juan Capistrano Corridor in 1991; Los Angeles’ Metrolink jammed onto an East Coast commuter Trains per weekday Union Sta. 12 8 16 in 1992; San Diego’s Coaster and Vancou- train or tried squinting through the gun- (Excludes long-distance) 32 12 22 on 1 - 9 t Riverside Oceanside ver’s West Coast Express in 1995; San Jose’s barrel slits of an Amfleet coach window. 28 ood © 2007 Kalmbach Publishing Co., TRAINS: Bill Metzger COASTER P uller tw After all, highway congestion and gas 10 - 19 A AMTRAK F 9 A Only passenger routes shown. Track owners AMTRAK Altamont Commuter Express in 1998; and C in parentheses. Maps not to scale. 22 22 20 - 39 22 25 Seattle’s Sounder in 2000. prices may be the catalyst that gets riders I F 19 16 This material may not be reproduced in any form PACIFIC I without permission from the publisher. 40 - 89 C Orange SURFLINER Established services, meanwhile, added on board the trains, but it’s the inviting O N www.TrainsMag.com 90 and up C SAN DIEGO U. S. A. departures and introduced sharp-looking equipment and convenient service that will E 35 A 0 Scale 80 miles new equipment, thanks to a commitment keep them there. — Matt Van Hattem Irvine M E X. N 25 22 Laguna Niguel.