Passenger Trains > Surfliner to discontinue two stops, add one

Amtrak to discontinue two stops, add one
San Diego Tribune
by Phil Diehl

> Amtrak plans to cease its daily stops at the Carlsbad Poinsettia and
> Encinitas Coaster stations beginning Oct. 9, in part because of low
> ridership. Coaster service at the locations will be unaffected.
>
> The two stops have the least riders of four North County locations
> where Amtrak initiated service four years ago, according to numbers
> provided by the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency, which oversees rail
> service between San Diego and the Central Coast city of San Luis
> Obispo.
>
> Ridership was just one factor in deciding which stops to retain,
> LOSSAN Deputy Managing Director Michael Litschi said by email
> Tuesday.
>
> “We also considered proximity to adjacent stations and availability
> of other transit options,” Litschi said.
>
> “In terms of expectations for the service, the overall goal ... is
> to provide increased travel options between Oceanside and San Diego
> by using Pacific Surfliner trains to supplement existing Coaster
> service where feasible,” he said.
>
> Amtrak ridership has increased slightly but steadily at all four
> stops added in 2013, according to numbers provided by Litschi. The
> Poinsettia station, which had the least, had daily averages of 23
> Amtrak riders in 2014, 28 riders in 2015, and 29 in 2016. The
> ridership number is the total of riders who boarded or disembarked
> at each location.
>
> Along with the Carlsbad Village and Sorrento Valley Coaster
> stations, Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains added stops at the
> Carlsbad Village and Sorrento Valley stations as part of a modified
> agreement with North County Transit District. The Village and
> Sorrento Valley service will continue. Sorrento Valley is the busiest
> stop, with 68 Amtrak riders last year.
>
> “After reviewing ridership data, and in close consultation with
> NCTD, it was decided to discontinue the stops at the (two) stations
> in order to better align Pacific Surfliner stopping patterns with
> ridership demand,” said Jennifer Bergener, managing director of
> LOSSAN.
>
> NCTD Marketing and Communications Manager Kimberly Wall said Coaster
> trains served a total of 1.6 million riders in fiscal 2016 and 1.5
> million in 2017. Coaster numbers were unavailable for specific
> stations. Each station along the route between San Diego and
> Oceanside has 11 northbound and 11 southbound Coaster trains each
> day.
>
> The agreement between NCTD and LOSSAN added three northbound and
> three southbound Amtrak train stops daily at the four North County
> stations.
>
> Also beginning Oct. 9, Amtrak will increase its stops at the Old
> Towne San Diego station. Its only other stop between Oceanside and
> San Diego is in Solana Beach. The Santa Fe station in downtown San
> Diego is the southern terminus of both the Coaster and the Amtrak
> lines. No immediate changes are planned for the Coaster commuter
> service at any of the stations.
>
> Encinitas had an average of 37 daily Amtrak riders in 2016,
> according to the LOSSAN numbers. Carlsbad Village station had a daily
> average of 41.
>
> Stations like the ones at Poinsettia and Encinitas were built to
> serve the Coaster, which began service in 1995.
>
> The Coaster’s northern terminus is at the Oceanside Transit Center,
> which also is the southern terminus of Metrolink, a commuter rail
> service with seven routes covering 538 miles in six counties.
> Oceanside also is the western terminus of the Sprinter commuter
> rail, which goes through Vista and San Marcos to Escondido.
>
> The LOSSAN rail corridor covers 351 miles through the six-county
> region between San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo. It
> includes 41 stations and more than 150 daily passenger trains.

NOTE: Remember, however: despite the San Diego Tribune headline
(corrected in the title of this post), it's not up to Amtrak any more. Amtrak
takes orders from the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/sd-no-train-service-20170918-story.html

When the Santa Fe ran their San diegan service Carlsbad and Encinitas where flag stops and the mail train stop.

Posted from iPhone

Its about time, I never favored those Coaster stops for Pacific Surfliners. I rode the Surfliner to San Diego & back a few weeks ago and was rather annoyed with all the Coaster stops on the S/B trip. I'm surprised they're keeping the Carlsbad Village stop, the Sorrento Valley makes sense.

Wasn't the idea of these stops to protect late coasters or people who missed the last coaster? Like the Surfliner that make Metrolink stops?

Railrev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wasn't the idea of these stops to protect late
> coasters or people who missed the last coaster?
> Like the Surfliner that make Metrolink stops?

The Pacific Surfliners do not make all Metrolink OC line stops, but when something happens, you will hear an announcment that because of something, the Surfliner will make all Metrolink OC line stops.

"The Pacific Surfliners do not make all Metrolink OC line stops, but when something happens, you will hear an announcment that because of something, the Surfliner will make all Metrolink OC line stops."

That only happens if a Metrolink train dies in service or can't be run for some reason.


Chris

Railrev Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wasn't the idea of these stops to protect late
> coasters or people who missed the last coaster?
> Like the Surfliner that make Metrolink stops?


Historically the only extra stop added to the last train was Old Town, which was only added because there were no transit options to reach that station from downtown at that late hour. Amtrak didn't want any more trains than necessary stopping there. Since LOSSAN has taken over management of the service more and more trains have added the stop. This schedule change finally makes it all train. There *was* an agreement with Metrolink where a handful of off-peak trains stopped at select Metrolink stations to provide midday travel options for monthly commuters. This ended about the same time that trains began stopping at Coaster stops (I wanna say there was about a six month overlap).

For some details on the schedule change next month a summary was posted at the Pacific Surfliner web page. http://pacificsurfliner.com/New-Schedule/

Still haven't seen a physical schedule.