Amtrak Considers 8th Train : Ideas to Improve L.A. to S.D. Ridership to Be Aired

An eighth daily round-trip train, first-class club cars and promotional fares are the first steps Amtrak is considering, as early as April, to improve rail service between San Diego and Los Angeles.

The government-financed corporation is also researching cost and ridership estimates of running 10 daily round trips at sustained speeds of 100 m.p.h., with a goal of cutting substantial time from the present 2-hour, 45-minute one-way trip.

Amtrak will offer these and other proposals, both short- and long-range, to members of a three-county task force at their first meeting in California next month.

The special group of representatives from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties will seek to boost ridership without increasing expenditures, particularly in light of the collapse in November of a controversial private plan to run 160-m.p.h. trains every half-hour at a cost of $3.1 billion.

In interviews here, key Amtrak officials endorsed the task force idea, and especially the effort for improvements at minimum cost.

Amtrak does not expect Congress to go along with an expected Reagan Administration budget request to eliminate government funding for the corporation.

In the worst case, from Amtrak’s point of view, all service would end Sept. 30. But even with continued monies, perhaps at a reduced level, Amtrak will be hard-pressed to justify major new capital expenditures, the officials said. (Amtrak is receiving $684 million in federal funds during the fiscal year that started Oct. 1, 1984.)

“We don’t want to proceed (on Los Angeles-San Diego) in a vacuum and want California people to discuss where we ought to be going,” said James H. English, vice president of intergovernmental affairs.

“I know a lot of Californians don’t believe 100 high speed trains a day are necessary, but would still like more frequencies and higher speeds.

“But anything we do must be cost-effective,” English said.

A major lobbying effort for an eighth round trip has been under way by state and local officials. Santa Ana Mayor Dan Griset and top Caltrans planners promoted the train in Washington meetings with English last week.

“It could be added with the October schedule changes but the question will be whether the train can cover its operating costs,” English said. Amtrak does not want to subsidize a new train, he said. Caltrans could agree to pick up two-thirds of the operating deficit of any new train, similar to what it now does for four of the seven daily round trips, but so far has not indicated a willingness to do so.

The Los Angeles-San Diego corridor attracted 1.22 million riders last year (about 3,200 riders day), requiring a $2.98 million subsidy after generating $14.1 million in revenues and sustaining operating costs of $17.1 million. Individual trains varied widely in terms of losses, with ranges as low as $50,000 to as high as a half-million dollars, Amtrak said.

“The study of an eighth train centers on an early-morning arrival in San Diego,” said Ira Silverman, director of route marketing for Amtrak. Public officials in both Orange and San Diego counties have argued for such a train, and Silverman said its absence represents the biggest hole in the present schedule.

“How early it could arrive is undecided,” Silverman said. “The question is whether to put it into San Diego at 8:30 a.m. or at 9:30 a.m.” In essence, the earlier the train arrives in San Diego, the less likely riders from Los Angeles will board, given the early departure necessary from Los Angeles. Silverman does not know if there are enough commuters from Orange and northern San Diego counties to justify the train or whether additional trains would simply divert riders from other trains without boosting overall patronage.

“We’ll have the answers as to time and costs within two months,” he said.

In addition, even if Amtrak finds an eighth round trip cost effective, the Santa Fe Railway must also approve the service. Amtrak leases tracks along the coastal route from Santa Fe, and the railroad has indicated that additional trains could disrupt freight service along the mostly single-track line. A Santa Fe spokesman said the railway will listen to any proposal.

Silverman expects a decision within a month on whether to offer first-class club service on some or all of the present seven daily round trips beginning with April schedule changes.

Wider-seat “Metroliner” cars will be used, he said. Those cars previously comprised the all-Metroliner daily round-trip service that failed due to poor patronage after less than a year. Silverman said that a single first-class car attached to a regular train would prove more economical than the unsuccessful all-Metroliner train, while still attracting riders desiring premium service.

Although Caltrans has asked Amtrak to institute 25% round-trip discount promotional fares offered in both 1982 and 1983, Silverman said Amtrak expects that any new promotions will be more selective.

“We may target the fare only for certain trains, or only for certain cities, or only on certain days of the week,” Silverman said.

“If we do it across the board at 25% off as previously, you need a 33% increase in riders just to keep revenues even.”

Silverman said that Amtrak must, by law, minimize its deficit rather than try to maximize its ridership and treat costs as secondary.

The question of faster trains has vexed Amtrak, and Silverman in particular, for years. Several years ago, the trains ran on a one-way schedule of 2 hours, 35 minutes but on-time reliability worsened as frequencies were increased and stations added.

Although trains theoretically can make the trip in 2 1/2 hours even at the average 51-m.p.h. running speed, they are slowed by the need to pull off onto sidings periodically to allow a train in the opposite direction to pass. If these “meets” are not timed perfectly, several minutes are lost.

“Even now, if we were to save five minutes here or there, I’m certainly not going to go out and advertise it,” Silverman said. “You’d need at least 15 minutes saved to begin to make differences and we certainly aren’t going to get that without some major capital expenditures.”

Silverman said that a 2-hour, 15-minute one-way time “would be great” because the train would then be competitive with the fastest one-way driving times between Los Angeles and San Diego.

“But I think long-term steps are going to be very modest because this corridor does not have the population density in city centers similar to New York and Washington (Amtrak’s most heavily patronized corridor),” Silverman said.

The single-track nature of the line for more than two-thirds of its 130-mile length, between Fullerton and San Diego, works against faster times without construction of new improvements, Amtrak operations officials in Washington said.

An engineering study under way by Amtrak will look at the requirements and costs to run 10 round trips at speeds up to 100 m.p.h.

“That could be obtained for relatively small capital costs,” said James Larson, assistant vice president for contracts and operating planning. The proposal being examined essentially updates and expands a $5-million program agreed to by Caltrans and Amtrak four years ago to shave 10 minutes off running times. That program was never carried out after Gov. George Deukmejian questioned the need at the beginning of his administration at the same time the ill-fated private bullet-train proposal was first floated.

Larson wants to add additional passing sidings, replace rails and ties for faster speeds, buy new track crossing signals, eliminate two major curves in Orange County and upgrade the automatic safety system along the tracks.

“I must caution that there are no expectations yet for any funding of such a program,” said Allan F. Edelston, general manager of operations. “We’ve been asked by Caltrans to put together a proposal and see if it has any potential.”

Neither Edelston nor Larson could estimate running time improvements if the program were funded and carried out.

“I will say that compared to the bullet train plans, this would be at minuscule cost, and would result in good, reliable service,” Edelston said.

“That would allow us to have both speed and flexibility and to run trains when people want to ride them.”