The Amtrak website shows direct train service between San Diego and Los Angeles as being available the last week in June. The Pacific Surfliner Travel Advisories page has no date when direct service will be reinstated. The fact that Amtrak is selling direct train service tickets needs to be taken with a grain of salt since, last year, they sold sleeping car accommodations for sleeping cars they didn’t have available. With a little over a week to go before we are to depart, we are monitoring this situation very closely and will submit updates as soon as we learn anything.
A relevant scenario might be how they handled the Cascades service to Vancouver in the system during COVID. The resumption date was indeterminate. Yet the train was in the system for resumption after various placekeeper dates. I seem to recall the phantom dates were pushed back three times. Only after well over a year of make believe dates was the train dropped from the system entirely. That was actually something of a harbinger of its return. When it finally reappeared it was when they had a firm date for resumption and it only showed up about a month before it started back up.
I was ticketed on one of those trains that turned out to be a phantom train. After the "start" date was moved out from my travel date in the system, I was never notified. My trip just lost its QR code on the app. I had to call to get rebooked.
The lessons here are:
1. When a service is changed/suspended/cancelled for a disruption of indeterminate length, a completely arbitrary restart date can be put in the system. That will be extended/changed as that date approaches to another arbitrary date, which also does not necessarily represent an actual service start.
2. Amtrak will not necessarily
automatically notify you that your ticket is changed once the phantom resumption is moved out beyond your travel date.
In your case, I'd trust what the Pacific Surfliner site says more than Amtrak, they are closer to it. The resumption date is indeterminate at present. The fact that they are cutting service and destaffing stations, including pretty major ones like ANA, to me is a sign they expect it to last a long time. If I were you, I'd assume I'd be on bus bridge on the Surfliner's published schedule, irrespective of what is in Amtrak’s system as of today. I'd also assume that I might not be notified, at least right away, once ARROW is finally updated to reflect a longer disruption. Check your reservation daily on the app. The QR code disappearing from the app seems to happen almost immediately upon the system being updated. Then call.
An agent cannot do anything until the change is actually in the system. Checking QR codes will likely be the fastest way of finding out that happened.
www.nbcsandiego.com
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