TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

I was reminded of this offer by today’s CC Rail Mail - Capitol Corridor offers a free Transit Transfer program, where if you ride a Capitol Corridor train, you can ask the conductor for a Transit Transfer, which is then valid with any one of a number of connecting Transit Agencies.

My first thought when reading this was - gee, why do I always keep forgetting about this when I actually ride the Capitol Corridor? On the train, I’ve never heard anyone mention this or seen it advertised anywhere (the only thing that you see on the train is the discounted BART tickets that they sell). Or even heard anyone ask a conductor to get one of these.

My second thought then was - ok, good idea, but bad execution! Why do I even have to ask for a Transfer in the first place? Why can’t I simply show my Amtrak Ticket stub to the driver or fare inspector to ride connecting transit?

Free connections to local transit services

While on board, ask the conductor for a free Transit Transfer. The conductor will give you a two-part, validated transfer, which should be punched for the next day - this allows you to travel to a destination, stay the night if needed and use the second transfer the following day.

[ ::: The Capitol Corridor: Transit Transfers ::: ]

Amtrak’s October 30 schedule change will also see the introduction of improved and faster service on the Keystone Corridor between Harrisburg, PA and Philadelphia, PA. Amtrak and the State of Pennsylvania recently completed an extensive upgrade of the rail line that will enable electrically powered express trains to cover the line in 90 minutes, at a top speed of 110 mph.

The enhanced service, which begins Oct. 30, will feature 90-minute express trains between Harrisburg, Lancaster and Philadelphia, a 30-minute improvement over the current two-hour trip. Local service will also improve to 105 minutes between Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Amtrak is adding three Monday-through- Friday roundtrips and one on Saturday and Sunday to the lineup of 67 roundtrips.

[ Governor Rendell, Amtrak Announce $145 Million Upgrade of Keystone Passenger Rail Service: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance ]

Eurostar - the company that operates the London-Paris/Brussels high speed rail services - recently issued a press release comparing the CO2 emissions of trains vs. airplane. Their research comes to the conclusion that a train emits roughly 10 times less carbon dioxide per passenger than an airplane traveling on the same route.

Obviously the factor depends on how the electricity used by the train is generated in the first place - one might argue that if the electricity comes from a nuclear or hydroelectric power plant, then there are no CO2 emissions at all.

Since the CO2 emitted by the airplane is mainly a result of the burning of jet fuel, i.e. oil, one can imagine that there is also a rather large cost factor here - the more expensive the oil, the more costly - economically and ecologically - the airplane becomes.

(via Patrick Moore)

The Coast Starlight is still being treated fairly well - delays are usually below 2 hours at the final terminus - but it may soon lose its Parlour Cars (there are rumors). But this past Saturday, the California Zephyr seems to have suffered quite a bit:

The westbound train #5 was over 15 hours late when it finally arrived in Emeryville.

The eastbound train #6 fared a little better, but was still more than 8 hours late at its arrival in Chicago.

According to a report presented at a recent Board of Directors meeting, Caltrain carried a record 1,007,897 passengers in August 2006 - this is a 13.6% increase when compared with the previous year and represents the highest monthly ridership figure in Caltrain’s history.

On-time performance was also at an excellent 97.6 percent for the month of August. Caltrain has exceeded its goal of 95% on-time in seven out of eight months this year.

For August 2006, Caltrain average weekday ridership increased by 13.4 percent when compared to August 2005. Average weekday ridership based on ticket sales was 36,913 for August 2006, an increase of 4,351 over August 2005. The total number of passengers for the month of August was 1,007,897. This is a 13.6 percent increase compared to last year’s August total of 887,342 and is the most passengers in a month Caltrain has ever had. Ridership was enhanced due to a free-ride promotion for Stanford students to attend the XI FINA Master World Championships involving 7,200 swimmers at the Avery Aquatic Center and other venues. This sustains a return to significant year to year ridership increases since the reinvention of Caltrain in August 2005.

For August 2006 on-time performance was 97.6 percent. This represents a 7.8 percent improvement from the previous year. This is a return to very high on-time performance and is above our goal of 95 percent on-time performance. Caltrain has achieved its on-time performance goal for seven of the last eight months.

Amtrak and Illinois Governor Blagojevich announced the second new state-sponsored train in Illinois for this fall schedule change - the train will be called the “Carl Sandburg” and will provide a 8am departure from Chicago for Quincy and return from Quincy at 5:30pm, arriving in Chicago at 9:48pm.

Starting October 30, daily state-sponsored train service between Chicago and Quincy is being doubled to two round-trips. Under this schedule, there will be new morning and evening departures from Chicago and Quincy. Combined with the other trains on the Quincy route that are part of the national Amtrak network, there will be four daily round-trips on the Chicago-Galesburg segment, two of them state-supported.

[ Governor Blagojevich Announces Amtrak Carl Sandburg to Start Running October 30th ]

The Train Riders’ Association of California and the California Rail Foundation will be holding their annual “California Rail 2020″ conference on Saturday, November 4, 2006 in Oakland, CA.

This year’s conference on state-wide and Bay Area topics. There will also be a reception on Friday evening and an excursion on the Niles Canyon Railway on Sunday.

For more information (detailed list of speakers and topics, conference signup form and hotel information, etc.), visit the following website: http://www.calrailnews.com/events.html

Also, note that the early-bird rate expires on October 13, so hurry!

This past weekend, I finally managed to take advantage of an opportunity to visit and ride the secluded Swanton Pacific Railroad. Over the past few years, I’ve really grown fond of these little 15 to 19 inch gauge operations (Swanton is 19 inch), so I try to visit as many of them as I can.

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend - they operated trains using two of their ~90 year old steamers and one of the diesels. These locomotives are roughly one third scale.

Diesel #502 in front of the roundhouse.

Steamer #1914 runs up the connecting line to the roundhouse and shop.

Al Smith is greeting all the visitors.

A steam powered train has just arrived at the College Park station.

Steam engine #1912 just before being cut-off at the station.

Diesel #502 in the wye at the end of the line.

Just before we left, they were setting up for a steam doubleheader with #1912 and #1914.

More pictures are here: Swanton Pacific Railroad photo gallery.

Last Friday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Los Angeles to mark the beginning of construction for the new Expo Light Rail line.

The Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority Board was joined by other local elected officials today to officially break ground on the 8.5-mile Exposition light rail line. Once completed in 2010, the Expo Line will link downtown to Culver City and will provide an alternative to the heavily congested I-10 Santa Monica freeway.

[ News Releases Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority Breaks Ground on L.A.’s Newest Light Rail Project to Serve Westside Commuters ]

Los Angeles - which was long considered the prime example of an automobile-centric metropolitan area - is rising fast on the list of cities with rail networks in North America. It already has a couple of very successful Light Rail line, a subway and a commuter rail network that continues to increase in service and patronage.

Continuing with the October 30 Amtrak schedule change news, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority just announced that they will add a fifth weekday round-trip to their Downeaster service (operated by Amtrak). The Downeaster currently operates four daily round-trips between Portland, ME and Boston. This new fifth service will operate Monday-Friday effective with the schedule change on October 30. At first, this new round-trip will be facilitated by operating the last trips of the day in each direction using a combination of buses (one for Boston to points in Maine and a second bus for Boston to points in New Hampshire). After completion of trackwork designed to add rail capacity to the route, the fifth trip should be switched to train instead of bus sometime next year.

Also, the schedules of the other four trips will be adjusted.

Link: The Downeaster - News