(rshsdepot) Fw: SF Gate: Amtrak finds California golden/Passenger line may be ailing elsewhere, but it's on track here

["Paul Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

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From: "H W Rosenberg" <HWR5_@_COLUMBIA.EDU>
To: "P S Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 10:11 PM
Subject: SF Gate: Amtrak finds California golden/Passenger line may be
ailing elsewhere, but it's on track here




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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate.
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Sunday, August 10, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
Amtrak finds California golden/Passenger line may be ailing elsewhere, but
it's on track here
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer


   Carrie Garcia and Keri Wells from Tulare wanted to leave the kids behind
and spend the weekend in the Bay Area -- clubbing in San Francisco,
visiting friends in Santa Rosa, wine-tasting in Sonoma -- but they didn't
want to drive.
   So the two friends decided to take the train. They hopped on the
northbound San Joaquin in Hanford and left the driving to Amtrak. "I'll
take it again and again and again," Garcia said.
   Thanks to weekend warriors like Garcia and Wells, briefcase-toting
executives, commuters and tourists, the three Amtrak California trains --
a cooperative effort between Caltrans and Amtrak -- are enjoying a surge
in ridership this year.
   Even as Congress debates the future of Amtrak, and California ponders
whether it should pour tens of billions into high-speed rail, the Capitol
Corridor, San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner have become among the national
passenger railroad's best-ridden trains.
   And they've become models for the future of financially and politically
struggling Amtrak, which is eyeing shorter-distance corridor routes and
state cost-sharing as keys to preserving and expanding passenger rail
service.
   "It's one of the best-kept secrets in the country, how California has
supported passenger rail," Amtrak President David Gunn said in a visit to
Oakland last fall. "You're doing it right. It's an example that should be
followed by the rest of the country."
   And it may be, if President Bush has his way. He recently proposed
sweeping changes to the national passenger rail system that would take
California's model of subsidizing in-state Amtrak service to other states
and eventually withdraw federal funding.
   Rail still plays a relatively minor role in California; it hasn't
noticeably reduced the number of cars on Interstates 5 or 80 or cut into
Southwest Airlines' business. But growth in Amtrak California's ridership
has made the trains among the nation's most popular outside the Northeast
corridor.
   MOST POPULAR LINE
   The Pacific Surfliner, which runs between San Luis Obispo and San Diego,
was the most-ridden train in the nation outside the Northeast in the 2002
budget year, with the San Jose-to-Auburn Capitol Corridor second. In
fourth were the San Joaquin trains that run from Bakersfield to Sacramento
and Bakersfield to Oakland.
   And each of the three trains keeps setting ridership records.
   "California is rockin'," said Gene Skoropowski, managing director of the
Capitol Corridor trains. "Record after record is being achieved."
   In June, 188,120 passengers rode the Surfliner, an increase of 30 percent
over the same month last year. On the Capitol Corridor, 94,702 passengers
- -- a 6.1 percent increase -- climbed aboard. And the San Joaquin carried
71,210 riders -- 2.3 percent more than a year earlier.
   Transportation officials and rail advocates credit a variety of factors
with driving more Californians to ride the rails -- fear of flying,
worsening traffic congestion, more frequent trains, improved marketing and
word-of-mouth.
   "Each train has its own reasons (for rising ridership), and then there
are
common reasons," said Richard Silver, executive director of the Rail
Passenger Association of California. "Gas prices have had an effect; so
has the decline in air travel."
   Jeff Morales, head of the state Department of Transportation, credits the
success to additional trips on the routes, coupled with capital
improvements. Since 1998, the state has spent $600 million on everything
from railcars to additional tracks and sidings.
   Under California's deal with Amtrak, the state covers the full cost of
operating the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin service, and two-thirds of
the Pacific Surfliner's cost. Last year, the state spent $73 million to
support the three Amtrak lines, the same amount budgeted for this year.
   "There's a very strong relationship between investment and ridership
increases," Morales said. "When the governor chose to put a large amount
of money into rail, it was a good investment. It's working."
   DISTINCT ROUTES
   While the Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner trains are
all state-subsidized, they traverse distinctly different terrain and have
their own character.
   The Capitol Corridor trains have more of an urban feel, with much of
their
journey passing through industrial tracts and the edges of subdivisions of
the East Bay. Most of the trains end in Sacramento within walking distance
of Old Town, downtown and the Capitol.
   With 12 round-trip trains each weekday and the relatively short run,
Amtrak engineers refer to the Capitol Corridor as "the commuter." But it's
also popular with families on day trips and travelers to the Sierra, a
destination that can be reached by connecting buses.
   "I took it just for the experience of it," said first-time rider Michael
Plimmer, an executive assistant from Los Angeles, who was in Sacramento
visiting a friend and took the train to see another buddy in San
Francisco. "I've been all over Europe on trains, and this ranks right up
there."
   Would he take the train again?
   "Absolutely."
   The San Joaquin, as the name implies, spends most of its run speeding
along through the fields and farm towns of the San Joaquin Valley, with
stops in towns whose names appear on produce labels: Turlock, Madera,
Hanford, Wasco.
   Many passengers are residents of valley towns, where catching an airplane
means a long drive or a steep price and a bumpy connecting flight on a
puddle-jumper. For them, the train is an affordable alternative.
   "It's a good way to travel," said Jarone Torrence, a computer technician
who rides the San Joaquin often from his Bakersfield home to visit family
in Antioch. "It's pretty reliable, and you don't have to worry about it
falling out of the sky."
   California's biggest success on the rails is, surprisingly, in Southern
California, where the car is still king but traffic congestion is driving
more people to try the train. Each weekday, the Surfliner makes 10
round-trips between Los Angeles and San Diego with three extending north
to Santa Barbara and one to San Luis Obispo. The train's riders are a mix
of commuters, business travelers, sightseers and tourists.
   Robert Flores, a philosophy professor at Santa Monica College, commutes
twice a week on the train from his home in San Luis Obispo -- a long ride
but one he enjoys.
   "For me, it's a five-hour block to read and relax," he said. "I don't
have
any problem with driving or with cars. I like to drive. But the train is
really a better way to go. It's just more healthy all the way around."
   SLOW GOING
   But riding the state-supported trains is not without its problems. For
many travelers, the trains are simply too slow, especially compared with
driving.
   The biggest problem is delays. Like other Amtrak lines, the state trains
are often late. For the third quarter of the last fiscal year -- the most
recent quarterly report available -- the Pacific Surfliner was on time 85
percent of the time, the Capitol Corridor 83 percent and the San Joaquin
76 percent.
   The delays are such a persistent problem that even fans of the train
caution the impatient.
   "It's an adventure," said San Joaquin passenger Lorine Snively, "and if
you're not willing to go with the flow, you probably shouldn't take the
train."
   Critics, including many Amtrak employees, blame the chronic delays on the
private railroads that own and control almost all of the tracks. Too
often, they say, the railroads give preference to their freight trains,
though federal law and deals with the state say passenger trains should
get priority.
   "Amtrak is seen as something that gets in the way," said Mark Jones, an
Amtrak locomotive engineer, on a day when a dispute with Burlington-Santa
Fe Railroad delayed one San Joaquin train more than two hours. "We're
moving the most precious cargo there is -- people -- and we're treated
like a second-class railroad."
   Officials with Amtrak, the state and the railroads say they're working
together to reduce delays and improve on-time performance. The state is
also helping pay for improvements -- such as an extra track across the
Yolo Causeway between Davis and Sacramento -- that will increase capacity
and speed trains.
   They're hopeful the work will keep the state-supported trains on a growth
track.
   "Public support for rail is very good, as the ridership numbers show,"
Skoropowski said. "If on-time performance can be improved, we can knock
the socks off of it."
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Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle


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