The Surfliners are the only alternative to a 200-mile detour necessary since mudslides closed the highway on Jan. 9. Union Pacific’s Coast Line, also closed by the slides, reopened Jan. 11. Cleanup of the highway continues, but the California Department of Transportation will not estimate a date for its reopening.
The highway closure has created heavy demand for the five daily round trips between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara (with two extending to San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
On Wednesday, Amtrak sent three additional Superliner coaches south from Seattle on the Coast Starlight, adding to the 8 California-owned and leased Superliner bilevels that have been redeployed from San Joaquin and Capitol Corridor trains. Those cars arrived on Jan. 13.
“Currently, we are adding blocks of three bilevels to every consist that operates north of Los Angeles,” LOSSAN’s Deputy Managing Director Michael Litschi tells Trains News Wire.
He says the three Superliners will be added to the mix as early as Friday. This will allow every train to operate with at least nine cars north of Los Angeles.
The extra cars and Horizon shuffling allow every train to have at least 750 seats instead of the 500 available in a normal six-car Surfliner trainset.
“The service is unreserved except for business class, so even with nine-car trains, we often have standees between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara, but also occasionally [in the other direction] to Ventura and Oxnard,” says Litschi.
“An extra benefit to these passengers — many who are new riders and haven’t experienced train travel before — is the Transit Transfer Program in the Santa Barbara transit district,” he adds. “This helps solve the ‘last mile’ problem of getting to a passenger’s final destination. We do want to use this opportunity to show customers what we can do for them once the highway is reopened.”
That program, which began in November 2017, provides for free transfers to local transit services by displaying a Pacific Surfliner ticket.
Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods says that as of Wednesday there were several 25-mph speed restrictions between Carpinteria and Santa Barbara in the area affected by the mudslides, as well as restrictions “to accommodate continued clean-up work on or near the train tracks.”
Note: This article was updated on Jan. 19 to correct information in a quote and the number of trains that serve San Luis Obispo, Calif.
For marine fans, there is also a water taxi service available between Ventura Harbor and Santa Barbara wharf, operated jointly by Island Packers (Ventura to SB round trip) and Condor Express (SB to Ventura round trip). There are two commute round trips per day (daily until 101 reopens), and while prices are as high as $32 each way, passengers will likely see gray whales and dolphins on the voyage. It is interesting to see this option emerge almost instantly as passenger ferries in the state are regulated by the CPUC.
Amtrak should have many more unreserved trains. Put the cars out on those trains and move people by the thousands, and people will use more trains. And Amtrak will make a profit.