Hello everyone and welcome to Train Talk!
Today, we will be talking all about the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner service.
We’ll talk about the route and its history, as well as what the future holds in store
for the Surfliner.
Let’s get started!
The Pacific Surfliner is an intercity passenger train that is operated by Amtrak and funded
entirely by the state of California.
The route travels over the entirety of what is known as the LOSSAN corridor, a passenger
rail route that runs between the California cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, and San
Luis Obispo.
This rail corridor is the second busiest in the United States, following only the Northeast
Corridor.
As of early 2018, there are 12 trips a day in each direction between San Diego and Los
Angeles, 5 of which extend to Santa Barbara and Goleta.
Two of the five Santa Barbara trains continue on to San Luis Obispo.
The total route length from San Diego to San Luis Obispo is 350 miles, 128 of which are
between San Diego and Los Angeles.
A total of 29 stations are served along the route.
The average trip time is about 2 hours, 50 minutes between San Diego and Los Angeles,
2 hours, 45 minutes between Los Angeles and Goleta, and about 2 hours, 40 minutes between
Goleta and San Luis Obispo.
Railroad equipment used for the service consists of a mix of locomotives and cars owned by
either Amtrak or the California Department of Transportation.
As of Spring, 2018, the locomotives used are a mix of 15 F59PHIs as well as a few P42DC
locomotives, all owned by Amtrak.
Soon, all of these locomotives will be replaced with 16 new Siemens SC-44 Charger locomotives,
but more on that later.
The cars used for the Pacific Surfliner are for the most part 50 bi-level cars built new
for the service between 2000 and 2002 by a company called Alstom.
Most of these cars are owned by Amtrak with the rest being state owned.
These cars have two double doors on each side of the car that automatically open for faster
boarding.
Cars come in four types: Business Class, combination coach/cafe cars, standard coach cars, and
combination coach/baggage/cab control cars.
The use of cab cars allows trains to operate in the opposite direction after arriving at
a terminal without having to turn the entire train.
This is incredibly useful on the Pacific Surfliner route, as train turnaround times are often
short.
To supplement the Surfliner car fleet, standard Amtrak Superliner cars are also leased for
the service, some of which have been painted into the “Pacific Surfliner” paint sheme,
minus the “Surfliner” lettering.
Surfliner trains used to run with 5 cars but more recently, each train is equipped with
6 cars, the extra being a second business class car.
In addition to the bilevel car fleet, one set of low level cars can still be found on
certain Surfliner trains.
This set is usually a mix of Amtrak Horizon and Amfleet cars with a Non Powered Control
Unit serving as the cab car and baggage compartment.
Trains are maintained at the Los Angeles 8th Street Amtrak yard and there are small storage
and service facilities for trains that are kept overnight in Goleta and San Luis Obispo.
Trains that spend the night in San Diego are stored at the downtown Santa Fe Depot.
As I previously mentioned, the Pacific Surfliner travels along the second busiest passenger
rail corridor in the nation.
Following the Northeast Regional and the Acela Express, the Pacific Surfliner is the third
busiest train in the Amtrak System.
Average yearly ridership is just shy of 3 million.
The two busiest times of year for Surfliner service are Thanksgiving and late July during
the Del Mar Horse Races and San Diego Comicon.
Train sets are lengthened to accommodate the extra passengers and sometimes, extra trips
are even added to the schedule.
The Pacific Surfliner is controlled by the LOSSAN Corridor Joint Powers Authority, a
collection of local government groups and public transit agencies that come together
to make decisions about the service.
Now that we’ve talked a bit about what the Pacific Surfliner is, let’s take a look
at its history.
The Pacific Surfliner is a descendent of the San Diegan, a train that was operated by the
Santa Fe Railroad between San Diego and Los Angeles, starting in 1938.
This stretch of rail line was nick named the Surf Line, because it paralleled the Pacific
Ocean coast for miles through Orange County and San Diego County.
The service was expanded by the Santa Fe in the 1940s and 50s as it grew in popularity.
However, due to competition from other modes of transportation, especially the car, service
was reduced in the 1960s.
Amtrak took over the San Diegan passenger service in 1971.
By that time, service had been reduced to just 3 trips a day in each direction.
Amtrak worked with the state of California to rebuild and once again expand the service.
Tracks were upgraded and more sidings were added.
Santa Fe sold the rail line between Fullerton and San Diego in the 1990s.
Metrolink took ownership of the portion from Fullerton to the Orange County-San Diego county
boundary and San Diego’s North County Transit District took ownership from the county line
to the San Diego Santa Fe Depot.
More trips were added to the schedule, and the route was expanded all the way north to
Santa Barbara in 1988.
In 1995, it was further expanded to San Luis Obispo.
Orders for new train equipment were placed by Amtrak and the state of California to replace
the aging F40PH locomotives and Amfleet cars.
At this point, the service no longer reflected the San Diegan name.
The new F59PHI locomotives began arriving in 1998 and the new bilevel passenger cars
started to arrive in the spring of 2000.
With the debut of the new equipment, the service was officially renamed to Pacific Surfliner
on June 1st, 2000, giving a nod to the “Surf Line” nick name.
Service continued to expand over the years with more stations and more trains added.
Express limited stop service has also been tested at various times but currently, there
are no express trains offered.
In 2013, at the request of San Diego’s North County Transit District, three Surfliner trains
a day in each direction began making stops at all Coaster Commuter Train stations.
More recently, Carlsbad Poinsettia and Encinitas have once again been removed as station stops
on the timetable.
So, the Pacific Surfliner has had an interesting history, but what does the future hold in
store for these trains?
In the most immediate future, all of the Amtrak owned locomotives used for the Pacific Surfliner
will be replaced with 16 brand new Siemens SC-44 Charger locomotives, purchased by the
state of California.
These locomotives meet the strict Environmental Protection Agency’s Tier 4 emissions standards
and are more fuel efficient.
They also have quicker acceleration and a higher top speed of 125 miles per hour.
In addition to new locomotives, the state of California is also purchasing 49 new single
level passenger cars from Siemens.
However, it remains to be seen how many of these will be used in Pacific Surfliner service.
More trips are planned in the future as well, including the reintroduction of express service.
Also in the works is a plan to extend a Pacific Surfliner train from San Luis Obispo all the
way to San Jose or San Fransisco as a “Coast Daylight” Train.
Finally, a number of infrastructure improvements are planned for the route.
Additional sidings and extended sections of main track will be constructed both north
and south of Los Angeles.
Additional track improvements will eliminate many grade crossings and improve track conditions
to increase the top speed on the line from the current 90 miles per hour to as much as
110 or possibly even 125 miles per hour.
And finally, research for a new maintenance and storage facility in San Diego is also
underway.
The Pacific Surfliner has become an important mode of transportation in the southern California
region.
Ridership is expected to increase even more in the future, especially with all the planned
improvements.
Whatever may lie ahead, the future looks bright for Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner as it continues
to zoom into the 21st Century.
Well, that does it for this episode of train talk.
I hope you had fun learning about the Pacific Surfliner!
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That’s it for now.
Until next time, I’m Mike Armstrong.
I’ll see you down the line!
Thanks for watching!