Then Amtrak would have to take over track maintenance and all that jazz though. Better to leave it to the rich class 1s to do the dirty work in my opinion. More money Amtrak gets to keep.

...come fly with me, fly, fly away... oopss this is a rail vid, np I ❤ trains too :)) infact I have 100+ train vids :))

3:18 Slowly but surely going away from this one cause my friend drives, but I couldn't before cause all we would have is a bike.

NO USA DOSE NOT NEED A EU LOOKING PEACE OF CRAP

I think ownership of corridors is the only way to have a good passenger service in the US at this point. I am not an expert of the area but if Amtrak or Caltrain or whatever combination of agencies were to own the tracks so that Amtrak could run its trains, you would not only have better service patterns, but you could create new opportunities. Maybe a cooperation between CALTRAIN and AMTRAK so that one focuses on the local services whilst the other focuses on the intercity services. Once the main line is nicely leveled up, with nice curve radius and good station facilities, intercity trains will bring demand. After that, you can start thinking of building minor stops for more local trains. Finally, you can start building out branches to create sub-urban networks. Probably this would take decades, but that is how it works with railways. If the corridor is partially used by UP, couldn't the Government try to force the sell-off? I am not an expert on US Law but if the corridor is of National interest, something could be worked out. I don't even know the UP current budgeting, but if the maintenance is poor, it means UP would be better off to just sell the corridor and pay the fare for the right of way for his short trains.

No dash 8 😢

Hopefully this will be my last response. Someone said the issue was "manned helpers at San Luis Obispo" and Union Pacific did want to bear that expense. My point , Southern Pacific for a brief time during the 90s decided to run light enough trains up and down the Coast Line so they would not have to use helpers at SLO and then they changed their minds again. Have you observed UP`s freight operations over Donner Pass? The UP utilizes radio control helper locomotives on some of their heavier trains out of Oakland and they go all the way to Sparks Nevada or a destination further, that eliminates manned helpers. That is a much longer grind than Questa at SLO. The UP can whenever and wherever they choose to use this technology to eliminate manned helpers. Their maybe some sound reason UP is not running through freight on the Coast line , it is not because of low tunnels and manned helpers at SLO. Having been a former employee when UP took over SP, I have a jaded opinion of both of their management teams. That is why I feel UP management is doing what they want to do. Retired Southern Pacific / Amtrak Engineer Davy Dauchan

Maybe King Elon will decide that America doesn't need Amtrak anymore, and then the whole question will become moot.

My friend is an Amtrak charger engineer/driver. He says they slip alot with wet track.

The quill kind of sounds like 2310 in 2018

There is more trains than just the Selena local and Guadalupe local. There is ZLCTM, ISELC (now the IBRLC). And probably some manifests that I don’t know of. Maybe it should be shorter, like go only up to San Luis Obispo. Although I don’t UP should shut it down, just only make it shorter.

So if UP sells this sub, how much would it cost to buy it?

Awesome!

On its face what you are propounding is completely sensible. Of course, reality is far more complicated than that: #1 - The railroad is private property. As such pays property taxes. If a transference from private to public occurs then the local entities lose their tax income. They will NOT be happy. #2 - The railroad is private property. If a transference from private to public occurs then money will transfer too from some public agency/agencies to the railroad. Uncle Pete will not just give it away. #3 - The railroad is private property and Amtrak gets use of it for a cost FAR LESS than direct ownership. So, what to do? I direct you to my home in Florida where the ROW between DeLand and Palatka is still owned by CSX but the track is owned by Amtrak. Amtrak pays CSX for maintenance to the FRA class 4 level. For the record I have not dug in any deeper as to the property tax situation but I will safely assume it is now in a “fee simple” assessment. California already pays Uncle Pete a fair amount for track maintenance where passenger trains operate. That may already be the case on some of the Coast Sub.

What about that UP train with all the LPG tankers?

Awesome and amazing amtrak train with the Alc-42

Amazing catch i love the alc-42

I worked the Coast route from 1970 to 1998. I do have a fondness for this route. The Coast was always a secondary mainline. The business has dried up in Oakland and San Francisco. The perishable business has gone to trucks instead of rail. It's just not profitable to maintain a crew base in SLO. In the olden days there used to be 10 freight a day 5 in each direction. If Tehachapi ever has a catastrophic failure the Coast has been used many times to route traffic. The line also supports several military installations. Port Hueneme Vandenburg Hunter ligget.

Love those Chargers

W catch

Start a petition to get the Coast Sub under Caltrans/Amtrak

Chat, 5008 posted on a Sunday

Extend the Surfliner north to San Jose and add another Coast Starlight.

Rare Sunday upload

5008 Sunday is not part of your post schedule

Holy shit a sunday upload

Nice

5008 Creations post on a Sunday???

I agree with almost everything you said, the only place I disagree is where you don’t believe it could become the west coast version of the northeast corridor. I think it could and should become that. The surfliner runs through and could connect really dense metro areas, it just needs to show the public that it’s an actual alternative to driving. As it is, there is no time savings taking the surfliner from LA to SD, nor LA to SB.

nice quill

that sounds awsome

what train was he running and what day

I was there I know that engineer

One other thing, the tunnels on the Coastline Oakland to Los Angeles need no modifications, the Southern Pacific ran double stack trains up and down the Coast from the beginning when SP introduced double stack, single and three car sets in 1977 to the railroad industry developed by SP & ACF . It is FALSE that the tunnels on the Coast are not tall enough to accommodate double stack container cars, I don`t know how that tall tale got started ! Retired Southern Pacific / Amtrak Locomotive Engineer Davy Dauchan

Right!!!!!! And Zane I was with you

I saw 14 and the ether units at slo I wonded to catch that one thow

I’d argue UP shouldn’t own any right of way.

Why would UP give the Coast Line away to anyone?

Cool 👍

"Erm acksually the first locomotive is an AC45CCTE, and the second locomotive is a C44ACM" 🤓

As a UP shareholder, I'm not saying sell, but increase speeds and slightly increase route prices, but that's just me.

Fun southern pacific fact, on the January 1st steam special train with SP 2475 at the lead, when the train was over the engineer decided to give 2475 her final whistle blow and tooted that melody, it was caught on camera and if you look up the video, it shows that clip

That was awesome to see in SLO

I saw this coast starlight at Santa Clara today!

4:42 FINALLY A GOOD REASON FOR ALL THE STUPID SPEED RESTRICTIONS!!! I have been looking for over three years on WHY TF THE COAST STARLIGHT GOES <12 mph ON ALMOST EVERY SINGLE CROSSING NEAR SALINAS! I’m gonna have a mental breakdown.

Here is where you are perhaps mistaken about this for California passenger rail users: Union Pacific owning that track means their vastly superior maintenance of way can be brought to bear when problems come up. Yes they are not doing a good job at the present but let me tell you how they once handled a washout at a bridge in Ventura shortly after they took over that line from SP. I saw this for myself at that time when I was living in Santa Barbara. Caltrans does not have that expertise, and would have to contract it to a railroad that does. The washout happened with excessive rains flooding the Ventura river. The very next day, a Saturday, I went by bicycle along the coast to that bridge and was surprised to see a UP crew already there assessing the situation. I asked a crew member where they had come from and they told me Omaha. They had driven all night to get there. Now as UP were new to this property they may have had a much higher priority back then. Later on I did watch them upgrade that line, extending SP's many notoriously short sidings. It seems they have now become almost as bad as SP was, but one more thing California would miss should they take the line over, is the property taxes that UP still has to pay. That is the deal with the devil that happened when the Santa Fe to San Diego and the other lines to and from downtown LA were taken over by a governmental entity created to form Metrolink. Yes we Californians got almost full control of those lines, which benefits the passenger services they host, but we also are stuck with paying for the upkeep, as well as having to let freight railways use, and abuse the lines in the wee hours. I no longer need to get to San Diego by 5:30 AM as I once did when in the U.S. Navy, but in the early 1960s I had two choices of Santa Fe trains to catch from Santa Ana that would get me there in time for muster. Hope this adds to your understanding and the history of rail here.

I'd like to note that another reason for the lack of any sort of (major) freight is because on the segment between Moorpark (that is where the SCAX Ventura Subdivision transitions into the UP SBA Subdivision) to say San Luis Obispo, There are tunnels that aren't low enough to where double-stacked intermodal trains can't go through them, and UP has sent Baretables and more rarely, actual Intermodal trains through the sub but just as a detour and forced to be single stacked which is highly impractical. Another thing is UP also interchanges with the VCRR here in Oxnard frequently to the Port of Hueneme, like with the LOF66S on Sundays, and any sort of Mira Loma Auto-Repositions and Military Trains like what we saw earlier. The statement that "UP Doesn't use it" is pretty false, as its not about the quantity of trains but just the business that those locals / manifests bring for UP even if its barely any. There was talk if i remember correctly about raising the tunnels / lowering the track bed to allow some Intermodal trains on the subdivisions leading up to San Jose but I doubt it really was gonna be going anywhere as there is the Palmdale cutoff / Tehachapi that trains can take, like mentioned. Just an FYI: Metrolinks future project of connecting LA > Goleta via the Ventura County Line will probably change how the Santa Barbara Sub is maintained, both with the crossings and how the tracks are taken cared for. But that's basically my own understanding and perspective on this and I could be COMPLETELY wrong (if so, feel free to correct me). :^)

I agree with just about everything you said, except for one major point. The Coastline is not slower than the San Joaquin Valley, here`s my point. San Francisco to Los Angles is approximately 471 miles. Oakland to Los Angles is approximately 483 miles. The Coast Daylight in 1945 SF to LA 9 hours 45 minutes. The San Joaquin Daylight Oak to LA a little over 12 hours. Valley trains have to deal with the Tehachapis mountains Bakersfield to LA. On the Coastline there`s only Questa at San Luis Obispo. The reason the Coast Starlight is so slow, Amtrak has scheduled unnecessary dwell time in stations, to make it easier for them to be on time. Before Amtrak took complete control of the Coast Starlight Southern Pacific ran a much faster schedule, no comparison. This also applies to freight. The reason Union Pacific is running all of their through freight trains up and down the San Joaquin Valley is their management has chosen to do so, it is not about speed. Retired Locomotive Engineer, Southern Pacific / Amtrak Davy Dauchan

Union Pacific should let BNSF Railway to take over the coast subdivision.

When was this? Where were they heading?