O.C. Rail Commuters Back on Track : Strike: But ridership was far below normal because news of the walkout’s end came so late.

Hundreds of Orange County commuters who were forced to switch to buses, vans and cars during the nationwide rail strike climbed back on their trains Friday after Congress ordered rail employees back to work.

“I had the car all to myself, it was great,” said banker Jim McWalters, 47, of Placentia, after arriving at the Amtrak station Friday evening. “There was no baby screaming, no teen-agers running up and down the train.”

On Friday, telephones at Amtrak’s Los Angeles offices were ringing incessantly with commuters anxious to know whether service had resumed, said Stephanie Miller, an Amtrak spokeswoman.

Amtrak officials in Los Angeles heard the strike was over about 10 p.m. Thursday from Amtrak executives in Washington, D.C. By Friday, train service resumed for all short hauls in California, except for the San Joaquin Valley, Miller said.

Amtrak’s Train No. 569, one of the first to arrive in Los Angeles Friday morning, had only 170 passengers, barely half the normal number, Miller said. Ridership was down because the news that Congress and President Bush Thursday night enacted a law halting the strike came too late for many of the Friday morning commuters.

And some Orange County rail commuters already had other plans in place.

“I was already in Los Angeles when I learned the strike had ended Thursday night,” said Connie Chan, 35, of Laguna Niguel. “I’ve been staying with relatives in Los Angeles rather than drive back to Orange County. I drove just one day, and it took me two hours going and an hour and a half coming back, and I said I wasn’t going to do that any more.”

Chan, a buyer for a restaurant equipment store in Los Angeles, said she will be back to her regular train commutes Monday. Transit officials said they think most other rail commuters also will be back on schedule by Monday morning.

“Today (Friday) we only had about 130 to 150 people on our commuter train, and our average daily total is 320,” said Mona Ziada, spokeswoman for the Orange County Transit Authority. She added that “most likely” many train commuters did not learn the trains were running again, after having been stalled Wednesday and Thursday by the strike.

Ed Zeis, a ticket clerk at the Fullerton station, said he fielded calls in the afternoon from commuters wanting to know if the trains are running.

“I guess a lot of people haven’t gotten the word,” he said.

Greg Boles, 37, of Fullerton, a Los Angeles city employee who has commuted by train for three years, heard service had resumed, but he still wasn’t sure.

“I came down this morning to check things out for myself, just to make sure I’d be able to get on,” Boles said.

During the strike, Boles said he drove his Jeep into Los Angeles, fighting traffic all the way.

On Friday morning, he got on the 6:41 a.m. train, which was uncrowded.

“Most days we’re all packed in, but today I pretty much had a row seat all to myself,” Boles said.

For McWalters, the banker from Placentia, the strike meant driving his car to a park-and-ride lot near the Riverside Freeway, where he took a freeway bus into Los Angeles.

“People look forward to riding the train. I don’t think anybody looks forward to riding a bus,” he said.

Times staff writer Bill Billiter and correspondent Terry Spencer contributed to this report.