Amtrak Back on Track After Landslide

Union Pacific last week began building a retaining wall to support about 300 feet of track undercut by a coastal landslide July 30, 26 miles northwest of Santa Barbara. Amtrak trains, which had to load passengers onto buses between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo for several days after the slide, have resumed service in the area. They will continue to run during construction, which is expected to take at least a month, according to John Bromley, spokesman at Union Pacific’s Omaha headquarters. He declined to state the project’s cost, except to say it will be “expensive.”

Only one of Amtrak’s 11 daily Pacific Surfliner trains goes as far north as San Luis Obispo; its daily long-distance Coast Starlight, between Los Angeles and Seattle, also goes through the area. Jennifer McMahon, Amtrak West spokeswoman, said that although trains will run more slowly near the construction site, schedules should not be affected. One plus for schedules is that freight trains, which sometimes delay Amtrak trains, are being rerouted to the Central Valley during construction.