California’s train riders rival those of New York, but why?

As Congress conducts its annual debate in the next few months about how, or even whether, to fund the troubled Amtrak system, we’ll hear a lot about rail’s role in the urbanized Northeast and in serving rural towns.

But if the past is any guide, we’ll hear almost nothing about California. Blame that omission on the Beltway mentality and our state’s car-crazy image because, in fact, a lot of Amtrak happens here.

More than 9.3 million people each year get on or off an Amtrak train in California, second only to New York’s 10.3 million. The Pacific Surfliner, which carries more than 2 million people each year between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, is Amtrak’s third-busiest route.

Four long-distance trains originate in California: the Coast Starlight (L.A. to Seattle), the Southwest Chief (L.A. to Chicago), the Sunset Limited (L.A. to Orlando, Fla.) and the California Zephyr (Bay Area to Chicago).

That’s not to say that rail is especially popular in this country. Traveling by train in the U.S. is nearly always slower than flying and, on cross-country routes, notorious for long delays. A train ticket also can cost more than airfare.

Only 4% of Americans took a train during vacations in the last 12 months, according to the National Leisure Travel Monitor, an annual survey by marketing consultants Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell in Orlando, and Yankelovich Partners in Chapel Hill, N.C. By comparison, more than 90% drove and nearly half flew.

So who takes the train in California? And why?

To get some idea, I made a round-trip hop one Saturday this month between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, taking the Pacific Surfliner north and the Coast Starlight back.

The Starlight, slowed by the effects of a sinkhole near San Luis Obispo, was one hour, 38 minutes late into Santa Barbara. The day before, a reservations agent told me, it ran 12 hours late northbound because of a freight train derailment.

“It’s late all the time,” a ticket taker at the Santa Barbara station told me.

Not quite. It has been late 56% of the time, on average, in the last few months, according to Amtrak statistics. Not as good as the Southwest Chief, tardy fewer than one in four trips, but better than the Sunset Limited, late nearly 98% of the time.

Amtrak blames more than 80% of its delays on commercial railroads, mostly freight, which own virtually all its tracks. Passenger trains stop often to let freight trains go by; there are also breakdowns, track work and other foul-ups to contend with.

Here’s what riders I spoke with had to say:

Virginia Prater, Los Angeles: “As long as you’re not in a hurry, it’s cool, ‘cause you don’t know what’s happening on the track.”

Prater, returning from a family visit to Salinas, Calif., took the Coast Starlight because it was cheaper: $45 one way from Salinasto L.A., versus $99 each way by air on tickets she priced from San Jose, about 60 miles north.

On the trip north, the train left L.A. late and pulled into Salinas about 10 p.m., she said -- more than three hours overdue.

“I was angry,” she said. “I was tired.”

John Divers, London: “When you fly, you see nothing,” said the Scottish-born electrical contractor, who was crisscrossing North America on a 30-day rail pass that was, to him, “quite cheap” at less than $500.

“Rail stations are charming,” he added. “Airports are not.”

Compared with trains he’s taken in Britain, U.S. trains are bigger and wider, with more legroom, and the food is half the price but not as good, in his view.

“On punctuality, we’ve got you stuffed,” he added.

He was, for instance, seven hours late into San Francisco.

“We were stuck in the Rockies for 5 1/2 hours behind a broken-down freight train,” he recalled.

When I spoke with him, he was headed for Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight. He planned to take a cab to Hollywood the next day in search of the “perfect hamburger” before boarding the Sunset Limited to New Orleans.

I hope it was on time.

John and Kathy Wood, Temecula: “The girls have never been on the train,” Kathy Wood said of the couple’s daughters, Lauren, 8, and Sara, 4.

For about $90 total, the Woods were taking the Pacific Surfliner round trip from Union Station for an overnight in Carpinteria. It was an impulse trip that John had booked on his Palm Pilot that morning as the family departed Disneyland after a two-day visit.

“I like it,” the girls chorused when asked about the train.

Peter Kelly, Martinez, Calif.: “I was looking for a chance to decompress,” said the Pomona College sophomore, who was taking the Pacific Surfliner on spring break from L.A. to San Luis Obispo to visit friends, then on to Martinez.

“It’s almost as cheap to fly,” he conceded. “But there’s something about taking your time to get where you’re going.”

Keith Carmona, Newport Beach: “We’ve got poker chips and beer in front of us,” said Carmona, a middle school teacher, when I asked why he and three friends were taking the Pacific Surfliner from Irvine to Santa Barbara for a rock concert and overnight stay.

You can’t do that when you’re driving.

Carmona added, “I don’t like contributing to the smog in the L.A. basin.”

Long-distance trains held less appeal for the foursome.

“It takes a long time, and the cost is prohibitive,” said Melanie Pickrell, referring to sleepers that can add $200 a night to a trip’s price.

Barbara Dellamarie, Burbank: Returning from a visit with friends in San Francisco, she confessed that the 11-hour Coast Starlight trip “sounds insane when you can fly [in] 45 minutes.”

But she explained the elusive charm of train travel this way:

“It’s like using a regular oven to cook your dinner instead of a microwave.”

An oven that often breaks down, I might add.

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Hear more tips from Jane Engle on Travel Insider topics at latimes.com/engle. She welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.