More SAN-OSD Surfliner bustitutions 4/20-21

[thully]

Hi,

I was just browsing the NCTD website for information about the Coaster schedule, and came across an announcement that there would be no rail service south of Oceanside on the weekend of April 20th-21st. From looking at Amtrak availability that weekend, it seems that they are in fact doing their normal bus bridge plan - three trains are cancelled (#565 and #579 NB, #562 SB), and the rest will have a bus bridge to/from Oceanside with departure/arrival slightly before/after the train schedule. Of course, Amtrak doesn't yet have an announcement up on their website.

With that said, any idea when these will stop? It seems like they have been doing this once every couple months, and it's always the segment between SAN and OSD that is affected. I guess the culprit is likely the single-tracked section of that route - not really much you can do there. Of course, this happens when Im doing a trip for Tigers-Angels in ANA for the second time in a row- I was going with a group who would mostly be riding Amtrak (not sure what their plans are now). I guess it isn't a huge deal - though the fact that the buses are reserved may make things difficult if I underestimate the game length and book a too-early train... I may go to two games this weekend, and this has me thinking I may be better off overnighting Friday in Anaheim and going north before the detour rather than doing two day-trips with the earlier/later departure times (and half of it on the bus). In any case, I guess I can hope for extra AGR points on the bus segments

 

[the_traveler]

And isn't the OSD-SAN segment the most scenic portion of the route? :blush:

 

[Trogdor]

Depending on what scenery you prefer, the best part (running right along the ocean) is north of OSD.

As for the bustitutions, I don't remember all the details, but I know there is a lot of work being done in that area to stabilize the Del Mar bluffs, and that requires shutting down the railroad while the work is done. There was also one outage where they were constructing some kind of pedestrian overpass over the tracks.

 

[guest]

Hi,
I was just browsing the NCTD website for information about the Coaster schedule, and came across an announcement that there would be no rail service south of Oceanside on the weekend of April 20th-21st. From looking at Amtrak availability that weekend, it seems that they are in fact doing their normal bus bridge plan - three trains are cancelled (#565 and #579 NB, #562 SB), and the rest will have a bus bridge to/from Oceanside with departure/arrival slightly before/after the train schedule. Of course, Amtrak doesn't yet have an announcement up on their website.

With that said, any idea when these will stop? It seems like they have been doing this once every couple months, and it's always the segment between SAN and OSD that is affected. I guess the culprit is likely the single-tracked section of that route - not really much you can do there. Of course, this happens when Im doing a trip for Tigers-Angels in ANA for the second time in a row- I was going with a group who would mostly be riding Amtrak (not sure what their plans are now). I guess it isn't a huge deal - though the fact that the buses are reserved may make things difficult if I underestimate the game length and book a too-early train... I may go to two games this weekend, and this has me thinking I may be better off overnighting Friday in Anaheim and going north before the detour rather than doing two day-trips with the earlier/later departure times (and half of it on the bus). In any case, I guess I can hope for extra AGR points on the bus segments

You're right. It isn't a huge deal. It's necessary to get improvement work done. They don't cancel all the trains, just a portion for the weekend.