Recent content by pldenc44

I arrived in Tucson today from Solana Beach, CA in north San Diego county. The Surfliner had 10 cars instead of the usual 6 due to the horse races at Del Mar. It was packed! I had to walk through about three cars before I could find a single seat to sit down. The train had to "stop twice" at...

Wow... I love that the Surfliner was packed... this is great news! An alternative is to ride Metrolink's rail service to Oceanside, then board the Coaster down to San Diego. They have more frequent trains. My question is... how did all these people get from the San Diego station (Santa Fe...

Arizona is doing a study on rail transit between Tucson and Phoenix. If approved and built, it appears the project would be run by AZDOT and Amtrak would have nothing to do with it. Passengers would have to ride the new rail to Maricopa and jump on the Amtrak from there...

Take the Coaster to the Encinitas station and walk 1 block to Moonlight Beach (at the end of Encinitas Blvd). It's a great family place and not as crowded as the downtown beaches in San Diego. Very convenient from the Coaster. For Amtrak's Surfliner the Solana Beach station is just a couple...

Any info on how many staff per sleeper vs staff on coach? I was surprised to see that a full sleeper grosses so much more than coach. It debunks the idea that Amtrak's poor performance is a result of running so many sleepers.

Whenever I pass a freight train on I-8 in Arizona/California in the middle of nowhere, my V1 radar detector lights up with K band all over the place. It appears that freight engines emit K band radar. Anyone know why? Do Amtrak engines have something similar?

Solana Beach is not crowded by any stretch of the imagination. Ever been to pacific beach, ocean beach, or any beach in Orange County or LA? I grew up 10 mins from there. It's a nice place and plenty quiet except for the big holiday weekends. Personally, I prefer Moonlight Beach. It's a 5...

Solana Beach is my destination from Tucson. The Surfliner leaves LAX at 6:15 and arrives in Solana Beach at 8:22. It's basically a 12 hour overnight trip to get from Tucson to San Diego. Too bad there isn't a line that goes straight to San Diego... trust me it's a much nicer place to be than...

Just quick numbers off Wikipedia. Yes the height is the fuselage height. It's just insane how tightly they pack airlines. I don't think it started out that way, but over time they've had to increase density to stay profitable. A train can never be as dense as a plane since travel times are...

Most of us think of a passenger jet being much bigger than a train car, but a 737's passenger space is only slightly larger than a single Superliner car. There are almost twice as many passengers packed into a similar size passenger space. If passenger rail is ever privatized, it seems very...

Driving the I-10 corridor from Tucson to San Diego the other day, there were crews installing new track alongside existing track, working Northbound near Marana/Oro Valley. The new tracks have cement railroad ties instead of the traditional wooden ones. Are they replacing old track...

The section that runs between traffic is less than 2 miles long right after passing Oceanside. It's a great view of the hills and ocean after that though... and the Surfliner runs fast out there. (not sure exactly how fast, but it passes traffic... and traffic runs REALLY fast out there)

wow that's fast... awesome!

BINGO! You have just hit the most frustrating thing about American passenger rail. Trains are supposed to be (and are) ultra-efficient at moving weight from point A to point B, yet it will almost always be cheaper to drive if you have 2+ people. There should be very low incremental costs to...

I just watched Atlas Shrugged, Part I. I didn't realize the movie was going to be centered around trains. Some of the footage was really cool! What I wouldn't give for a 250 mph train ride! Seeing the concept of the new railroad made me wonder what trains would look like if they were...