Day 1: On Caltrain and the Coast Starlight

Various checks on the Amtrak website throughout the day seem to indicate that the Coast Starlight is fairly ontime - which means that I need to take the 7:14p departure from Mountain View to San Jose - to be sure that I can make the connection there. Caltrain arrives more or less ontime as usual and we’re in San Jose at 7:37p. I go over to the waiting hall in the station to wait for the arrival of the Starlight.

The San Jose station maintains much of the character of a real train station - ticket counters in one corner of the hall, wooden benches for the waiting passengers in the other half.

At 8:25p, the station agent makes an announcement that the Starlight should be arriving at around 9:30p …

While I wait, the 8:36p Caltrain arrives and the Starlight is nowhere in sight. Which means I could easily have left home an hour later. But I didn’t want to risk missing the train on the first leg of my trip, even though the Starlight is rarely ontime …
9:35p - another Caltrain train arrives - I’ve been here for two hours already now. Train #14 should be arriving shortly though - the station agent tells us to head over to track 5 (usually, the Starlight departs from track 1, right next to the station building).

At 9:48p, train #14 arrives in the station. In the lead is Cascades F59 #467 - it must be on the way back from Los Angeles where it probably underwent some maintenance. We board the train, I go find my Superliner roomette and find the bed already made up for the night.

9:56p - the train departs San Jose and makes rather slow progress towards Santa Clara - there is a UP train on the next track that we leave behind. After we have passed CP Coast in Santa Clara, the train speeds up towards Oakland and Emeryville.

Train Consist for #14(18):
- F59 #467
- P42 #119
- P42 #113
- Baggage #1164
- Transition Sleeper #39035 (1410)
- Superliner Sleeper #32072 (1431)
- Superliner Sleeper #32077 (1430)
- Superliner Diner #38058
- Sightseer Lounge #33048
- Superliner Coach #34077 (1411)
- Superliner Coach #34515 (1412)
- Superliner Coach #34045 (1413)

Schedule and actual times:
San Jose - 9:56p (8:39p - 1:17L)
Oakland - 11:22p (9:47p - 1:35L)
Emeryville - 11:39p (10:12p - 1:27L)
Martinez - 12:17a (10:54p - 1:23L)
…

Posted in: Uncategorized | March 18, 2006 7:59 pm

2 Comments »

Ben, on March 30, 2006 @ 5:54 am

No parlour car? That’s disappointing. Have they removed it permanently or is it in the shop–as it was on my last journey north aboard the Coast Starlight?

Marcel Marchon, on March 30, 2006 @ 8:26 am

no - there was no parlour car. a couple of months ago, they were all in maintenance. or then maybe they had to use the spare trainset - how many parlours do they have anyway?