Coast Starlight Track Work LAX-SBA

According to a couple of posts on train orders, UP will be performing track and bridge work around Ventura from 9/25-10/06.

This will cause problems for some schedules for the Surfliners and Starlight, except for Fri 9/29-Sun 10/01, with a Bus-bridge between Oxnard and Santa Barbara.

There is no possibility of a Tehachapi reroute according to the post.

I,along with several other AUers, will be traveling between LAX and PDX before and after the Gathering, and have received no notification from Amtrak nor is anything posted on Amtrak.com.

Bob Dylan said:

According to a couple of posts on train orders, UP will be performing track and bridge work around Ventura from 9/25-10/06. This will cause problems for some schedules for the Surfliners and Starlight, except for Fri 9/29-Sun 10/01, with a Bus-bridge between Oxnard and Santa Barbara. There is no possibility of a Tehachapi reroute according to the post. I,along with several other AUers, will be traveling between LAX and PDX before and after the Gathering, and have received no notification from Amtrak nor is anything posted on Amtrak.com.

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I don't think Amtrak considers a bus bridge to be an important service altering development. It's annoying and uncomfortable and the customers don't like it, but it also doesn't prevent Amtrak from getting passengers from Point A to Point B.

What you say is true Chris, but my concern is that we may have to ride a Surfliner from LAX to Oxnard, get off with all our stuff, board busses for the fantastic ride up 101 to Santa Barbara( sarcasm intended).

Then unload, board the Starlight for a Late departure North which may, or may not, include the pleasant ride in the PPC and the lunch one usually enjoys on the way to SBA!

To me this is NOT acceptable considering the premium price one pays in cash or points to travel on the Starlight. YMMV

Yep, I am not thrilled.

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Bob Dylan said:

What you say is true Chris, but my concern is that we may have to ride a Surfliner from LAX to Oxnard, get off with all our stuff, board busses for the fantastic ride up 101 to Santa Barbara( sarcasm intended).

Then unload, board the Starlight for a Late departure North which may, or may not, include the pleasant ride in the PPC and the lunch one usually enjoys on the way to SBA!

To me this is NOT acceptable considering the premium price one pays in cash or points to travel on the Starlight. YMMV

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Not acceptable? Is there an alternative?

Skyline said:

Bob Dylan said:

What you say is true Chris, but my concern is that we may have to ride a Surfliner from LAX to Oxnard, get off with all our stuff, board busses for the fantastic ride up 101 to Santa Barbara( sarcasm intended).

Then unload, board the Starlight for a Late departure North which may, or may not, include the pleasant ride in the PPC and the lunch one usually enjoys on the way to SBA!

To me this is NOT acceptable considering the premium price one pays in cash or points to travel on the Starlight. YMMV

Click to expand...

Not acceptable? Is there an alternative?

Click to expand...

Yep, a damn Bus to Bakersfield and a San Joaquin to Martinez or Sacramento chasing the Starlight! No comparison IMO! YMMV

Two days ago the original poster over at Train Orders added this:

"Pending is a couple days detour via the Valley in October for the Starlight.

Otherwise, in September the Starlight should see no delays." There also was a link, along with the text, of a short article in a Ventura paper about the upcoming work.

I received a call this evening from an AGR customer service representative notifying me that the #11 Coast Starlight SB will be experiencing delays and that I wouldn't make my connection from LAX to Oceanside on the Pacific Surfliner, which is the last southound train for the night.

He said they had a bus departing LAX at 2:30 am and arriving in OSD about 4:30 am. He was quite pleasant and apologetic. I opted to stay in LA overnight (at my expense) and take a train the following day.

What is interesting and why I wanted to share this information here, is that I am on the #11, (PDX-LAX) on October 8th & 9th. That is outside the dates previously given for the work.

I'm just happy that I'll be staying on the train, delayed as it may be, rather than doing the titution things!

Dang autocorrect! That should be bustitution, not titution .... what ever that means!

CAMISSY55 said:

Dang autocorrect! That should be bustitution, not titution .... what ever that means!

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When you catch a typo or more serious garble so quickly after posting, you can edit your post. At the bottom of the comment window, next to the MultiQuote and Quote buttons, an Edit button should appear when you hover the cursor over it. The time window for Edits will close at some point, but until it expires you can do a lot of fixing.

Sorry. Thanks for the information. I have only been accessing this discussion board using my cell phone and the mobile website. I didn't see any option to edit. Maybe I'm missing something.

I just found it when I posted this post. Thanks again!

Most importantly, I wanted to share that Amtrak had contacted me about the construction and it's effect on my plans. Maybe others will hear something soon.

Is the track work affecting both the North bound as well as the South bound CS? I have a connection from the CS to the EB in PDX on 10/04/17. There is only an hour between the two. Anybody have any further information about possible delays?

Hello,

I'm travelling from LA to San Francisco on October 6th - will this affect my trip?

I was having a ***? moment, then decided to go to AU for a chance at clarity, and here it is!

I'm sitting in SLO Brew at 10 PM on the 24'th pondering how I'll get home to The Diego tomorrow, September 25th.

Travel options for tomorrow were making little sense. SB train 2790 (???) terminating in Santa Barbara, then a bus to The Nard, then 790 to Los Angeles?

AU to the rescue! Now I get it, I'll relax with my IPA, and make a reservation in the AM.

This forum is great! Thanks to all of the posters above!

Sent from my iPhone using Amtrak Forum

It'll be interesting to see how this actually impacts the Starlight. There is still nothing on Amtrak.com. The Surfliner website has very specific closure information: http://pacificsurfliner.com/Surfliner_Disruption/

Basically the track will be closed...

September 25-28 and October 2-3, 2017: 12pm-8pm
9pm October 4, 2017 through 9am October 6

Work should wrap up on Oct 6th, so I'm not sure why Amtrak would be contacting people traveling after that.

Despite how much I have learned about Amtrak train travel from following this board and it's many sage AU members, I am confused and concerned about this situation.

It seems that the anticipated effects of the track work differ on on the Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner, even the dates. I wonder if anyone here knows:

1. Is there any track work scheduled in early October north of SLO that would effect the CS and not the PS?

2. Do sleeping car trains (or even just the CS) have preferential status over coach and BC trains?

3. Does this post, made six days ago, on Train Orders mean anything to any of you very knowledgeable AU members?

"Pending is a couple days detour via the Valley in October for the Starlight.

Otherwise, in September the Starlight should see no delays."

(Note: the poster was the member who posted the original notice about the Ventura County bridge work.)

Thanks for any insight!

The closures mainly have been affecting the midday Pacific Surfliner trains. Those trains are being bustituted between Oxnard and Santa Barbara. Train 14 isn't affected too much northbound as it is scheduled to pass through the closure right around 12 noon when the closure starts. Train 11 could potentially be delayed about 1-1.5 hours southbound if it is on time as it is scheduled through the closure area just before 7pm, however the closure does not end until 8pm.

As a result Train 11 will not make the scheduled connections at LAX as the train it is scheduled to connect to (Train 796) will actually be originating in front of the Starlight at Oxnard. There is no bustitution for passengers of trains 11 or 14.

Thank you, roadman for the great information. I have traveled numerous times in the past two years on the SWC. Late arrivals have only meant taking a later SB Surfliner. This will be my first time taking the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight to get to Southern California. So, it really helps knowing what to expect and why.

I'm not looking forward to taking the the bus from LAX (Union Station) at 2:30 am, arriving in Oceanside at 4:30 am. I have changed my mind twice about what to do. I finally decided to take the bus being provided for those who are impacted by missing Train 796.

The AGR customer service representatives have been very pleasant and patient. They have credited back a very generous amount of points for the inconvenience. (I've called them three times trying to sort this out.) But, none of them could answer the questions that a experienced AU member did! So thanks again, roadman.

FWIW, I just noticed this on the Pacific Surfliner website.

"36-Hour Closure Will Affect Pacific Surfliner Service between Oxnard and Goleta - PostponedOctober 4-6, 2017 - POSTPONED
The 36-hour track closure in Ventura originally scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 4 and end at 9 a.m. on Friday, October 6 has been postponed. Pacific Surfliner service will operate according to the regular schedule. New dates for the track closure will be posted here once available."

http://www.pacificsurfliner.com/Surfliner_Disruption/