Passenger Trains > Cochella Festival, why no rail specials?

It recent years the Cochella music festival in the desert of California's Cochella Valley has turned into a huge event that will attract more than 600,000 people this year.  Some years back Amtrak ran a special train to the event that was never repeated. I guess one train would be a drop of water in the bucket considering attendance these days. What happened that the train was never repeated in subsequent years?  

These days an operator could probably fill dozens of chartered 50 car Metrolink unit trains to the festival and charge whatever they want, with plenty of money left over for profit and to pay whatever extortion rate Union Pacific might want.  Three day general admission event passes are going for just under $400.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

From what I read in this morning's newspaper, there were plenty of arrests there due to drunken behavior. That probably means there plenty who were not quite sufficiently intoxicated to warrant an arrest. Drunks on trains are not pleasant for anyone and this might be a small part of the reason for no service to the festival.

Another possibillity is UP's reluctance to allow additional traffic on the Sunset Route. 

Not to mention cleaning the train afterwards...Meh.

Amtrak having a desire to do something above and beyond their status quo?  On their own initiative as opposed to being prodded by an outside party?    

That would be a first. 

This is not the group you want on Amtrak. They will make Del Mar horse fans look like church goers

Maybe some old cattle cars? If one of these trains loaded with those who are loaded for some reason was delayed for several hours somewhere out in the desert with no power, no food, no working toilets, and no civility the results could be horrible.

For historic info the ONE time only Amtrak specail train 
ran in April 2008 on Thursday 4-24-08 eastbound LA to Indio ( returned on the following Monday ) .
It reportedly took 3 hours on the train from LA to Indio .
A special platform was built in Indio, California for this very special train :
http://www.railpac.org/2008/04/26/a-purple-surfliner-to-indio/
with
http://www.treehugger.com/travel/train-to-coachella-music-festival-reduces-cars.html
and
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/25/entertainment/et-coachella25

Here is a good photostream from flickr with some train photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/74696088@N00/2440624081/

-----Daniel

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webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It recent years the Cochella music festival in the
> desert of California's Cochella Valley has turned
> into a huge event that will attract more than
> 600,000 people this year.  Some years back Amtrak
> ran a special train to the event that was never
> repeated. I guess one train would be a drop of
> water in the bucket considering attendance these
> days. What happened that the train was never
> repeated in subsequent years?  
>
> These days an operator could probably fill dozens
> of chartered 50 car Metrolink unit trains to the
> festival and charge whatever they want, with
> plenty of money left over for profit and to pay
> whatever extortion rate Union Pacific might want.
>  Three day general admission event passes are
> going for just under $400.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/15 18:10 by daniel3197.

I can think of one really good reason why there is no Cochella Trains,  No Sponsor.
Find somebody with deep enough pockets and it will happen.  Good luck on finding them...

If all the sponsors, UP, Amtrak, etc. came together, I fear there could be some bad outcomes from having to follow freight trains in nearly 2% grade territory.
Hard to imagine people would enjoy watching cars passing on parallel I-10 while crawling along behind a horsepower or braking speed limited train.
I would lose patience, even if I was listening to a scanner and appreciating a line where I worked several years.
In short, not the right infrastructure for a passenger service.

Ask Justin Bieber to support one

railstiesballast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If all the sponsors, UP, Amtrak, etc. came
> together, I fear there could be some bad outcomes
> from having to follow freight trains in nearly 2%
> grade territory.
> Hard to imagine people would enjoy watching cars
> passing on parallel I-10 while crawling along
> behind a horsepower or braking speed limited
> train.
> I would lose patience, even if I was listening to
> a scanner and appreciating a line where I worked
> several years.
> In short, not the right infrastructure for a
> passenger service.


I guess you didn't see the traffic jam that extended from Cabazon to darn near Indio then? The folks in I-10 weren't passing anybody!