Passenger Trains > Changes coming to the San Joaquin service

There has been talk of them creating an early morning service for years and it looks like it is finally coming. Where would a trainset layover in Fresno?

http://www.bakersfield.com/news/amtrak-reducing-service-from-bakersfield-shifting-a-train-north-in/article_e021d7ca-99a6-11e7-b464-37123cc9e774.html

Amtrak reducing service from Bakersfield, shifting a train north in search of business travelers
BY JAMES BURGER

Amtrak service from Bakersfield is changing.

In January, Bakersfield will lose one of its seven train connections as the agency that oversees the system implements changes designed to reverse a slide in ridership.

Fresno will benefit from Bakersfield’s loss.

It will gain a train service that will connect business travelers to Sacramento by 8 a.m. — in time to hold business meetings and lobby legislators in the state capital.

Bakersfield loses a train that leaves in the evening and delivers riders to the Sacramento station at around midnight.

Not all is lost.

Bakersfield travelers will be able to connect to the Fresno express train — but they will have to get on a bus at around 2 a.m. to claim that benefit.

TRAIN

Dan Leavitt, manager of regional initiatives for the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, said the goal is to make it possible for a one-day round-trip from Fresno to Sacramento.

Currently the San Joaquins are used by leisure travelers who plan an extended stay in either Sacramento or the San Francisco Bay Area, he said.

“It’s hard to do a daily round trip for business passengers,” Leavitt said. “Even with our current train you have to say overnight.”

That adds a couple hundred dollars in expenses to what would otherwise be a relatively cheap round-trip train ticket from the South Valley to the state’s capital.

And currently the earliest Amtrak coming into Sacramento from the south arrives in the late morning — not the best option for people who have business to conduct.

“If you’re able to do daily trips you actually became an affordable option,” Leavitt said.

Attracting business travelers to the train is critical to keeping the system growing and strong, he said.

“With the valley — pretty much any industry you’re in — you have some connection to Sacramento. That travel to Sacramento is getting more and more difficult. There’s more and more congestion on Highway 99,” Leavitt said. “The San Joaquins are a very, very safe alternative.”

The San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority thinks attracting business passengers is the key to the Amtrak system’s future, he said.

“We see a very bright future for the San Joaquins. We just need to be smart in what we do,” Leavitt said.

The Authority board, which controls Amtrak service in the Central Valley, has already voted to create the express service from Fresno to Sacramento.

Next week that board, Leavitt said, will vote to make the schedules official.

BAKERSFIELD

Michael Turnipseed with the Kern County Taxpayers’ Association will be at that meeting.

He spoke to the Kern County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, urging them to oppose the loss of the train to Bakersfield.

Instead, Turnipseed said, there should be a special “express” train service created from Bakersfield that skips some smaller stations on the way to Sacramento so that passengers coming out of Bakersfield can also make it up to the capital in time for an 8 a.m. meeting.

“The biggest problem with Amtrak is they have trains that don’t run when people want to ride them,” Turnipseed said.

He said Kern County is sitting back and letting people drive cars when environmental regulations call for the county to reduce air pollution.

Leavitt said the whole goal of the service is to add stops and serve more of the valley — not exclude connections to smaller communities.

Ahron Hakimi, executive director of the Kern Council of Governments, said Amtrak just isn’t competitive with cars for Bakersfield travelers.

Parking is cheap, traffic isn’t bad and the trains are slower and have had trouble making it to destinations on time, he said.

Users will have to see value, Hakimi said, before they use the train.

Posted from Android

Still no service over Tehachapi to and from Los Angeles! A good idea would be an overnight train between Los Angeles and Sacramento via Bakersfield and another between Los Angeles and San Francisco via the Coast Line to San Jose and then over Cal-Train into San Francisco, each on a 10-hour schedule. Leave LAX 2100 arrive SAC 0700, Leave LAX 2130 arrive SFO 0730. This would be very convenient for business travelers. Perhaps YouPee could be bribed, shamed or coerced into cooperating.

It'd also be convenient to simply give business travelers free tickets on Southwest between LAX/SMF or LAX/SFO and, I'm guessing, an order of magnitude cheaper. I love trains, but I just don't see the money anywhere to support such ideas.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/17 10:10 by yorknl.

DavidJustinLynch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still no service over Tehachapi to and from Los
> Angeles! A good idea would be an overnight train
> between Los Angeles and Sacramento via Bakersfield
> and another between Los Angeles and San Francisco
> via the Coast Line to San Jose and then over
> Cal-Train into San Francisco, each on a 10-hour
> schedule. Leave LAX 2100 arrive SAC 0700, Leave
> LAX 2130 arrive SFO 0730. This would be very
> convenient for business travelers. Perhaps YouPee
> could be bribed, shamed or coerced into
> cooperating.

The railfan in me would love to see passenger service return to Tehachapi but it is just not feasible. It would be battling all the work windows on Metrolink each night as well as UP's slow rock train, once on UP it would be right in the mix of several hot Z-trains from each railroad. That's when things are running smooth, one stalled train or broken rail and that mountain falls apart.

Posted from Android

The later is always the typical that always screws up the mountain, I still don't get myself why some people still think it's possible, anyone remember both Southern Pacific and Santa Fe resisting the same idea way back when?

I rode on the San Joaquins in the mid-sixties. Unless the UP has straightend out a lot of curve in Tehachapi, the old San Joaquin had a five plus hour running time between LA and Bakersfield. That is a long time to sit on a train just to get to Bakersfield.

We'll see a LA to Sacramento Hyper Loop before you see LA to Sacramento rail service.

Are we now witnessing a slow erosion of intercity rail passenger service, intended for all California train customers, in order to provide commuter service for Stanislaus and San Joaquin County residents, at the expense of statewide taxpayers?

DavidJustinLynch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Still no service over Tehachapi to and from Los
> Angeles! A good idea would be an overnight train
> between Los Angeles and Sacramento via Bakersfield
> and another between Los Angeles and San Francisco
> via the Coast Line to San Jose and then over
> Cal-Train into San Francisco, each on a 10-hour
> schedule. Leave LAX 2100 arrive SAC 0700, Leave
> LAX 2130 arrive SFO 0730. This would be very
> convenient for business travelers. Perhaps YouPee
> could be bribed, shamed or coerced into
> cooperating.

I second the motion, and think its possible. RailPAC has evaluated the feasibility of such service and seems to favor an overnight train!

Amtrak784 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> DavidJustinLynch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Still no service over Tehachapi to and from Los
> > Angeles! A good idea would be an overnight
> train
> > between Los Angeles and Sacramento via
> Bakersfield
> > and another between Los Angeles and San
> Francisco
> > via the Coast Line to San Jose and then over
> > Cal-Train into San Francisco, each on a 10-hour
> > schedule. Leave LAX 2100 arrive SAC 0700, Leave
> > LAX 2130 arrive SFO 0730. This would be very
> > convenient for business travelers. Perhaps
> YouPee
> > could be bribed, shamed or coerced into
> > cooperating.
>
> I second the motion, and think its possible.
> RailPAC has evaluated the feasibility of such
> service and seems to favor an overnight train!

Now, convince UP that's it's a good idea. Good luck.