For the Daring, Amtrak Had Seats to Spare : Transportation: Many commuters shunned San Diegan runs because of concerns over short-lived nationwide rail strike, but the line was operating.

Talk show host Dick Cavett tried to hide his identity Wednesday when he hopped aboard an Amtrak San Diegan in Los Angeles en route to a speaking engagement in San Diego. He wore the signature celebrity sunglasses and a fishing hat pulled down low over his face.

But, on the first day--and last--of a nationwide rail strike, the precautions proved unnecessary. There were few people riding the afternoon train to hound him for autographs.

Contradictory strike advice resulted in nearly empty ghost trains running between San Diego and Los Angeles throughout Wednesday, giving uncommon privacy to a few die-hards who gambled that the trains would run.

Late Wednesday night, after Congress passed legislation ordering strikers to return to work today, an Amtrak spokeswoman said the passenger rail system will probably still be suffering from some glitches for another 24 hours.

The Los Angeles-San Diego corridor was the only rail line operating in the state Wednesday. But the frustration for San Diego passengers traveling north beyond Union Station in Los Angeles to points between Santa Barbara and the northwest was tangible.

The bad news at San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot started early and ended late as passengers were told flatly that Los Angeles was the end of the line.

At 5:45 a.m., Jim Krager of San Diego sighed in frustration when a voice on the station loudspeaker announced that the Coast Starlight he had planned to board in Los Angeles for Oregon “had been annulled for the day.”

“Sounds like a marriage, not the end of a trip,” he said. Krager, who had planned to visit Portland to check out a Bible college, retrieved his bags with a sly smile.

All was not lost, the 26-year-old said. He still had the next three days off from work, and his boss didn’t know the train didn’t run. After all, this was San Diego. It was time to hit the beach.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, meanwhile, the situation was no better. Eager commuters came to stations only to find that commuter trains that normally carry 22,000 passengers a day had been idled when employees of Southern Pacific Railroad walked off the job at 5 a.m.

Amtrak trains, which constitute Southern California’s commuter service, were not directly affected by the strike against the nation’s freight carriers. But Amtrak spokesman Arthur Lloyd in San Francisco said that uncertainty about whether Amtrak trains could operate safely on the Santa Fe’s freight tracks forced Amtrak officials to authorize service on a “train-by-train basis” for most of the day.

Only after the morning rush-hour began did Amtrak announce that service between Los Angeles and San Diego--the nation’s second-busiest intercity passenger rail corridor--would continue on schedule. But, by that time, most people had already forsaken the trains for buses or impromptu car pools.

Even after saying that the morning trains were on schedule, Amtrak said it was unable to guarantee that it would be able to maintain its full schedule.

Those who stuck with the train Wednesday found themselves in for an adventure.

At 7:30 a.m., a half-hour after the strike officially began in Southern California and moments before a busload of waylaid southbound San Diegan passengers was to rumble out of Union Station, Amtrak abruptly pulled them off the bus, announcing that a previously canceled 7:45 a.m. train would run after all.

Mike Martin, a spokesman for the Santa Fe, which owns and operates the tracks between San Diego and Los Angeles, said that--despite the strike--railroad employees were doing their usual duties dispatching and signaling trains.

Early Wednesday, northbound commuters from San Diego and Orange counties who gambled that train service would run on schedule were treated to the unthinkable--near-empty trains.

“This train is usually standing-room-only by now,” said Gil Roybal, a real estate agent who was among 20 passengers who boarded the No. 573 as it passed through San Juan Capistrano, where more than 225 commuters normally wait each morning. No. 573, which leaves San Diego daily at 6:20 a.m., carried 164 riders Wednesday, contrasted with more than 500 on a normal weekday.

Dana Nusser of Dana Point, a fashion designer who regularly takes the train to Los Angeles, said commuters on Tuesday evening’s train were abuzz with plans to beat the strike--exchanging numbers and making car pool arrangements.

“It was wild,” she said. “People said, ‘Let’s get a limo and a case of beer and have a real party.’ Most people I know are taking things in stride.”

Tina Heldreth of Vista said she heard on the radio that the 7:11 a.m. train she takes from Oceanside to her job in Fullerton would run, but she later heard that the train would be the last. She raced in her car to catch that train in San Juan Capistrano but decided not to board when she was told there probably would not be a return train in the evening.

In Ventura County, Mildred Musil, 80, of Simi Valley said that Amtrak officials had assured her she would be able to catch the 9:20 a.m. northbound train to Santa Barbara. In fact, none of Amtrak’s San Diegan trains went any further north than Los Angeles. Two trains a day normally continue on to Santa Barbara.

San Francisco Bay Area transit authorities pressed more buses and BART cars into service to help ease the morning commute, and, by afternoon, had pulled together some limited commuter train service. But the inconvenience of it all frustrated commuters who have come to depend on the trains.

Getting information from Amtrak was dicey, at best. It’s well-publicized toll-free phone number was jammed almost continually. Wayne Mourry of Dana Point called on a speaker phone he set up in his bathroom, then took a shower. A half-hour after he dialed, an Amtrak clerk finally answered, and Mourry stepped out of the shower to ask if the train was running.

Commuters who opted to drive did not cause much of a problem on the already jammed Interstate 5.

“It was nothing unusual today--no extra accidents, no extended commute hours,” California Highway Patrol Officer Randall Thornton said.

Ironically, as Amtrak was going out of its way to provide service for commuters who largely did not show up, it was canceling most of its services and offering no alternatives to travelers who did arrive at Union Station.

“One minute they tell you they’ll put a bus on for you, and the next minute they tell you it’s off,” said Colin O’Hare, a visitor from Liverpool, England, who was trying to get to Las Vegas with his buddy, Richard Hunt. “I sympathize with the Amtrak people, but it’s a mess, a real mess.”

The No. 573 train, normally full of sleepy commuters after leaving the San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot at 6:20 a.m. with stops in Del Mar, Oceanside and several in Orange County, had room to stretch out Wednesday morning.

Only 20 passengers boarded the train in San Diego. Del Mar and Oceanside, which normally yield as many as 100 passengers apiece, offered fewer than 2 dozen each on this day. And several platforms in Orange County were deserted.

At some point along the way, some passengers had entire cars all to themselves to read, doze or gaze out at the crashing Pacific on a gray morning.

Diana Davis of San Diego took a gamble on the Amtrak. She was headed to a business meeting in Sacramento and said her boss would kill her if she showed up late. But, by mid-morning Wednesday, it was unclear if she would make it at all.

“I’ve never been so nervous about taking a trip before in my life,” she said. “But I love taking the train too much to change. To me, it’s worth the risk.”

Veteran conductors like Ted Klix didn’t mind the shortage of passengers.

“Usually, I’m running like hell right now because I’ve got exactly nine minutes to collect all the tickets before we get to Santa Ana,” he said as the train pulled away from the Irvine station, where only two passengers boarded.

“But I’m loafing today. It’s beautiful, just beautiful.”

But not all would-be rail riders were chased away by the dire warnings of train delays and cancellations.

In Santa Ana, a dozen migrant workers who had crawled into a tiny crawl space above the train’s engine were discovered. Officials surmised that the stowaways had sneaked aboard in San Diego.

“Heck,” quipped one conductor. “If we would have known, they could have ridden in the first-class section. There’s lot’s of room there today.”

Times Staff Writers Dan Morain in San Francisco, Jeffrey A. Perlman and Leslie Berkman in Santa Ana, Carlos V. Lozano in Ventura, Myron Levin in San Diego and free-lance writer Danielle A. Fouquette in Fullerton contributed to this report.