Rail Strike Foils Some Best-Laid Plans : Trains: Amtrak routes between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara have been suspended until the stoppage is resolved.

Simi Valley resident Mildred Musil planned to catch a 9:20 a.m. to Santa Barbara on Wednesday, but instead ended up driving to her travel agent’s office to ask for a refund on her $51 train ticket.

Musil, 80, and many other Ventura County residents were forced to change their travel plans at the last minute Wednesday because of the nationwide rail strike.

Although the strike involves freight carriers, most of Amtrak’s passenger service was interrupted because its trains operate on track owned by freight railroads. In Ventura County, Amtrak runs on lines owned by the Southern Pacific Transportation Co. and makes stops in Oxnard and Simi Valley.

Musil said she called Amtrak’s offices in Los Angeles at 6 a.m. and was assured the train would be running on schedule.

“I didn’t realize there would be a problem when I bought the ticket” last Thursday, Musil said, adding that her planned vacation, a weeklong church retreat in Three Rivers is off.

In Oxnard, the normally buzzing Transportation Center was nearly deserted Thursday. Only a few would-be passengers trickled in for the early train to Los Angeles.

Ojai resident Wes Vaught and his 13-year-old son, Tacoma, were among them. The two were planning to take the train to San Diego for Tacoma’s first-ever train ride.

“I was really looking forward to the trip,” the boy said as he browsed through a baseball-card album he brought for the journey. “I’ve been in subways a lot when I lived back in Boston, but that was mostly underground. It’s a lot prettier when you can see the scenery.”

Arthur Lloyd, an Amtrak spokesman in San Francisco, said the two northbound and two southbound Amtrak routes that run daily between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara will be discontinued until the rail strike is over. In addition, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, which makes one daily round trip between Seattle and Los Angeles, with stops in Simi Valley and Oxnard, will also be suspended.

Amtrak, however, is continuing to provide service between Los Angeles and San Diego on Santa Fe rail lines, Lloyd said. Amtrak is organizing bus service between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, he said. The buses stop in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Ventura.

Anticipating a rush for tickets, the Greyhound station in Oxnard ordered four backup buses for the Oxnard-Los Angeles route, which runs four times a day.

But Greyhound agent Jack E. McCroy said the rush never materialized.

“Midweek is usually slow for us,” he said, “but we thought today it would be different. We were wrong.”

Meanwhile, Ventura County agricultural officials said the rail strike would not have a significant effect on their operations, because about 95% of the farms and packinghouses in the region use trucks to transport their goods.

“We shouldn’t have too many problems developing,” said Donald Reeder, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

The strike also was not expected to have a major impact at Port Hueneme, which is served primarily by trucks.

Mazda Motors of America is the only company at the port that uses rail. Trains distribute cars to dealerships in Southern California, said Bill Dryer, director of finance for the Port of Hueneme-Oxnard Harbor District.

Dryer said Mazda had already made plans to store some of its inventory nearby on land it leases from the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion.

Still, some businesses may be affected.

Officials at the Tarzana-based Terry Lumber Co., which operates two of the largest lumberyards in Ventura County, said that if the strike lasts longer than a week, it will cause delays in delivery of materials to their outlets.

Mike Prediger, a Terry official, said the company’s Simi Valley and Ventura stores receive about 85% of their materials by rail. Each store averages two to three shipments a week.

Prediger said the company, which has 11 outlets in Los Angeles, has enough inventory to keep its stores stocked for about a week.

If Terry is forced to ship materials by trucks, which are more expensive to use and smaller than rail cars, it could result in a scarcity of lumber and overall higher prices for materials in both Ventura and Los Angeles counties, Prediger said.

“One railroad car can carry three to four truckloads of materials,” he said.

Dee Boysen, a spokeswoman for the Building Industry Assn. of Ventura County, said building officials are concerned that a prolonged strike will cause delays in deliveries to construction sites throughout the county. Delays could drive up the cost of projects already affected by the recession, she said.