Surfliner Service Disruption in October

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Three weekends in October with no substitute service. All to do with track renewal and double tracking.

http://www.pacificsurfliner.com/Surfliner_Disruption/
I believe the primary driver is the Sixth Street Viaduct project in Los Angles. That project to replace a deteriorated highway bridge necessitates the weekend closures of the Metrolink tracks located below the bridge for superstructure demolition. Given the need for the weekend closures for the bridge work, Metrolink is using the opportunity to blitz their own work.
 
I believe I read on Trainorders that the SWC would be detouring via the Metrolink San Gabriel Sub (bypassing Fullerton).
Now that you mention it, I seem to recall having read that to. Did not connect the two together in my head though possibly because of unfamiliarity with the lay of the land.
 
The SWC reroute is showing on the web site (no trains to Fullerton or Riverside).
 
Weaving together a couple of comments above.... There have been several "absolute work windows" (AWW) in the last couple of years driven in large part by the bridge replacements in Penasquitos Lagoon in the northern-most coastal area of San Diego, just south of Del Mar (other double tracking projects as well). In fact, some birds nesting season just ended permitting work to resume on that project resulting in a AWW just a week or three ago. Other major construction is now beginning on double tracking and adding additional track for the San Diego Trolley (Mission Valley to University City), which in some areas means going from single track to four tracks with required new bridges. These projects alone will drive the need for AWW's for some time to come (a few years). The recent projects and others mentioned above affect traffic south of Oceanside only. In this case Amtrak provides bus service south of Oceanside.

What is really unique about this series of three AWW's is the 6'th Street bridge demolition and reconstruction. The bridge is across the Los Angeles River, just south of downtown and between Los Angeles Union Station and the Fullerton Transit Center. As such it's not just San Diego County rail traffic affected, but all passenger rail south of downtown LA (note the Metrolink exception). The Southwest Chief is unaffected by all of the San Diego work, but it must transit the 6'th Street Bridge to get to/from Fullerton and parts east of Fullerton Junction. The Sunset Limited does not head up/down the river and is not affected.

This is some complex stuff. It's really a good thing all of the governmental organizations and contractors involved could coordinate such that all of the projects could capitalize on common AWW's and effectively reduce overall impact. That's damn near a miracle, IMHO.

On Wednesday 9/21/16 I'll pass under the 6'th Street Bridge in transit from San Diego to SLO. Will capture a few pictures and post. What I've seen in the last few months has been fascinating. The trip home on the 26'th will be after dark, but there will be another trip through there some time in October - perhaps additional pix then.
 
The Pacific Surfliner JPA web site is recommending people take Greyhound. Unfortunately Bolt and Mega do not do this route, probably because of traffic, so Greyhound is the main option.
 
And then you wonder why people don't consider public transit seriously :-/
This is California. The alternative is called YOUR car.
Both of these are fair points. The Carmageddon comment is a bit misleading since there were plenty of alternate options available for people to use, namely the umpteen other freeways in the LA area.

At least in this case Greyhound is an option of sorts, and hopefully Greyhound is paying attention and will add extra service. It's baffling to me that Amtrak California doesn't at least add some Thruway bus service to the schedule, even if it was just LAX-SAN non-stop.
 
The point of my Carmageddon comment was you can get a lot more done when things are shut down, and you're not working around traffic. It's extremely disruptive, but it's typically better for everyone in the long run. But to suggest that the railroad is the only one's to do this doesn't take all the facts into account.
 
The point of my Carmageddon comment was you can get a lot more done when things are shut down, and you're not working around traffic. It's extremely disruptive, but it's typically better for everyone in the long run. But to suggest that the railroad is the only one's to do this doesn't take all the facts into account.
OK, gotcha. I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were using it as an example of a time when there was no alternative option provided.

I don't think anyone on this thread is questioning the strategy of a complete shutdown. It's the fact that Amtrak California is offering no

options to passengers other than "go find another transportation provider." It's not too wide of a logical leap for the beancounters to

conclude that if SoCal can do without Amtrak service between LAX and SAN on three weekends in October, then maybe it just doesn't

need service on the weekends at all. After all, if people can use Greyhound this time, why not every weekend?
 
The Pacific Surfliner JPA web site is recommending people take Greyhound. Unfortunately Bolt and Mega do not do this route, probably because of traffic, so Greyhound is the main option.
Bolt did at one time do the LA-SAN route but stopped due to low ridership. I rode it back around the end of 2013 and I think it was discontinued sometime shortly after that.
 
The point of my Carmageddon comment was you can get a lot more done when things are shut down, and you're not working around traffic. It's extremely disruptive, but it's typically better for everyone in the long run. But to suggest that the railroad is the only one's to do this doesn't take all the facts into account.
OK, gotcha. I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were using it as an example of a time when there was no alternative option provided.

I don't think anyone on this thread is questioning the strategy of a complete shutdown. It's the fact that Amtrak California is offering no

options to passengers other than "go find another transportation provider." It's not too wide of a logical leap for the beancounters to

conclude that if SoCal can do without Amtrak service between LAX and SAN on three weekends in October, then maybe it just doesn't

need service on the weekends at all. After all, if people can use Greyhound this time, why not every weekend?
Multiple times earlier this year, when they closed down the corridor on the weekend, alternative bus were offered. My guess is that very few people took the bustitution. I've cancelled trips due to bustitution on the Surfliner as well and so have many others I know. In my case, the whole point of taking the Surfliner is to avoid the freeways and travel in the comfort of the the train. If I have to take the bus and pay the same railfare, I might as well take my own car and go for much cheaper.
 
Amtrak between LA-SD is around $37 while Greyhound is $15-$20. No one will pay Amtrak prices to sit on a bus and get stuck in traffic.
 
The point of my Carmageddon comment was you can get a lot more done when things are shut down, and you're not working around traffic. It's extremely disruptive, but it's typically better for everyone in the long run. But to suggest that the railroad is the only one's to do this doesn't take all the facts into account.
OK, gotcha. I misunderstood your comment. I thought you were using it as an example of a time when there was no alternative option provided.

I don't think anyone on this thread is questioning the strategy of a complete shutdown. It's the fact that Amtrak California is offering no

options to passengers other than "go find another transportation provider." It's not too wide of a logical leap for the beancounters to

conclude that if SoCal can do without Amtrak service between LAX and SAN on three weekends in October, then maybe it just doesn't

need service on the weekends at all. After all, if people can use Greyhound this time, why not every weekend?
Completing the LA Green Line extension to Norwalk would have done wonders for the Sixth Street Bridge closure. People would be able to take LA Metro Rail from Union to Norwalk.
 
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