What’s next for passenger rail in 2013? How do we ‘take it up a notch’?

Obama has been re-elected with an ongoing disfunctional split in power between the house and senate, making any large new initiatives unlikely.

So what can we expect to see for improvements in passenger rail on the west coast?  incremental improvements at best, with some stimulas funds helping out in California, Washington and to a lesser extent, Oregon.

California is building the first leg of its’ high-speed rail system in the central valley.

Washington is buying trainsets, improving service and track.

Oregon is working on an environmental study and train-routing for the future, and has purchased a couple of Talgo train sets to improve service along with Washington.

Incremental improvements are nice (Casprail is pushing for track improvements, service improvement and ADA improvements on the Coast Starlight service), but how do we get major systemic improvements from San Diego to Vancouver BC?  Projects to vastly improve and re-route tracks, build passenger-only sections where appropriate?  Improve trainsets?

What is the way to accomplish this?

How do we get started?

Your ideas are welcome!

Thanks,

Larry, chief advocate at Casprail.org

Amtrak Coast Starlight from Albany, OR to Monterey, CA

Website of the Cascade Passenger Rail Association

The Amtrak Coast Starlight between Albany, OR and Monterey, CA is a delightful and scenic rail journey.  You travel through beautiful country, boarding and disembarking from the train at reasonable daylight hours.  You spend an overnight on the train – my wife and I booked a ‘roomette’ for this trip.  The route follows highway 99E to Eugene OR, before heading east through Oakridge and roughly paralleling Hwy 58 to the central Oregon town of Chemalt.  The train route was laid out in the 1920’s and is extremely scenic.  You then follow Highway 97 through Klamath Falls, passing the beautiful and bird-filled Klamath lakes before crossing the border into California.  Around midnight the train stops in Sacramento, then Davis and then on to points south such as the S.F. bus connection in Emeryville.  We then head down the south Bay through the salt drying ponds of Morton Salt, the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve near Moss Landing and in to Salinas to meet the bus for Monterey.

Sleeper Attendent Chris on the Coast Starlight, delivering a drink in the Parlour car.

Review of the trip – (overall, we really enjoyed it!):

1. Chris, our sleeping car attendant (and Rene on the trip back) were great.
2. The food was decent and the wine was surprisingly good (especially the 2009 Genesis Syrah in the Parlour car)
3. The trip was very rough at times, making it difficult to walk through cars and between cars – and, surprisingly, not just in the mountains!
4. The sleeping car behind the Parlour car was very smelly, and there was nothing the attendant could do about it.
5. The tracks at the San Jose station were covered in trash!
6. The train had to stop for a variety of freight and signal-related issues that made us late both directions, but by less than a couple of hours.