Nostalgia & History > Article on the "Medfly" (aka Spirit of California)

Here's an article cut out of the San Luis Obispo Telegram Tribune newspaper from (probably) late 1981. Like a dummy I cut without including or writing the date!

Also click on the link below to read a TO post from 2005 with lots of good info about the "Medfly". I never rode it - a big regret of mine.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,879100


Allen

---

My recollection is that it was called the "Medflyer" rather than the Medfly.

J. Lancaster

spjim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My recollection is that it was called the
> "Medflyer" rather than the Medfly.
>
> J. Lancaster


It may have but Medfly was more common. The train was also called the "Coast Ghost."

The Medfly was an unfortunate failure. SP fought Amtrak to the bitter end adding the train which was one of Ben Biaggini's last gasps as a passenger rail antagonist. Ridership was disappointing which wasn't surprising due to the lack of marketing and use of Amfleet crap equipment on an overnight train. The final nail in the coffin was funding politics.

Bob

bnsfbob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> spjim Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My recollection is that it was called the
> > "Medflyer" rather than the Medfly.
> >
> > J. Lancaster
>
>
> It may have but Medfly was more common. The train
> was also called the "Coast Ghost."
>
> The Medfly was an unfortunate failure. SP fought
> Amtrak to the bitter end adding the train which
> was one of Ben Biaggini's last gasps as a
> passenger rail antagonist. Ridership was
> disappointing which wasn't surprising due to the
> lack of marketing and use of Amfleet crap
> equipment on an overnight train. The final nail in
> the coffin was funding politics.
>
> Bob

BOB, I checked on this train just about every day. The usual consist it's last year was two baggage cars, mostly mail and express, three or four Amfleet coaches, an Amdinet, and two 10&6 sleepers. The sleepers were close to sold out and the coaches would see 150-200 riders over the course of the run. The train did amazingly well considering the lack of promotion. Mail and express business was very good. Many times Amtrak would have to rent a truck to haul the overflow express and mail as the two baggage cars allowed the train would be full. Tony <sp> Mastrangelo would get the job of driving the truck if memory serves.
Your right, it was politics that killed the train. The Espee spent a lot of money helping George Deukmejian get elected Governor ( he succeeded the first coming of Jerry Brown) and part of the pay back was killing the Spirit and the experimental commuter service out of LAPT.

GettingShort Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bnsfbob Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > spjim Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > My recollection is that it was called the
> > > "Medflyer" rather than the Medfly.
> > >
> > > J. Lancaster
> >
> >
> > It may have but Medfly was more common. The
> train
> > was also called the "Coast Ghost."
> >
> > The Medfly was an unfortunate failure. SP
> fought
> > Amtrak to the bitter end adding the train which
> > was one of Ben Biaggini's last gasps as a
> > passenger rail antagonist. Ridership was
> > disappointing which wasn't surprising due to
> the
> > lack of marketing and use of Amfleet crap
> > equipment on an overnight train. The final nail
> in
> > the coffin was funding politics.
> >
> > Bob
>
> BOB, I checked on this train just about every day.
> The usual consist it's last year was two baggage
> cars, mostly mail and express, three or four
> Amfleet coaches, an Amdinet, and two 10&6
> sleepers. The sleepers were close to sold out and
> the coaches would see 150-200 riders over the
> course of the run. The train did amazingly well
> considering the lack of promotion. Mail and
> express business was very good. Many times Amtrak
> would have to rent a truck to haul the overflow
> express and mail as the two baggage cars allowed
> the train would be full. Tony Mastrangelo would
> get the job of driving the truck if memory serves.
>
> Your right, it was politics that killed the train.
> The Espee spent a lot of money helping George
> Deukmejian get elected Governor ( he succeeded the
> first coming of Jerry Brown) and part of the pay
> back was killing the Spirit and the experimental
> commuter service out of LAPT.

I was an activist in Citizens for Rail California, NARP and the precursor to URPA at the time. Most of my energy was spent battling Reagan-era Amtrak budget cuts and certain stupid decisions made internally at Amtrak (ridiculously ineffective marketing, biased route accounting data, poor equipment utilization). We argued for Superliners on the Spirit and lost. We also pressed for more marketing and lost. We also wanted two improvements that were a long shot - through cars up the peninsula to San Francisco and funding as a national system (vs. 403b) train. The net result was the Spirit was another great train that got started in a doomed-to-fail manner and then later was given an unjustified hatchet job.

Bob

I wonder what this train would be like today.

If it was still running.

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

bnsfbob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> spjim Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > My recollection is that it was called the
> > "Medflyer" rather than the Medfly.
> >
> > J. Lancaster
>
>
> It may have but Medfly was more common.
> Bob

t
You're correct, Bob. "MEDFLY" was the more common name for this train. We were on duty at 0145 for an 0200 departure out of San Luis Obispo for this train.



V

SLOCONDR