Amtrak Upgrading Trains on Coastal Run

In an effort to open up the Central Coast to more rail traffic, newer and faster trains are being added to the most popular rail line in California.

The ocean has always been the visual highlight of riding the San Diegans route between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, so the train will be renamed the Pacific Surfliner in April with the arrival of double-decker trains.

“The new name is really a nod to the entire coast,” said Dominick Albano, an Amtrak spokesman. “Our goal is to eventually have more frequent trips north of Los Angeles.”

The San Diegans line is the second-most-popular corridor in the Amtrak system after the Boston-New York-Washington run. Covering the southern third of California’s coast, the line carries 1.5 million riders annually. Amtrak has found that 70% of riders use it only between San Diego and Los Angeles.

There are 11 round trips daily between San Diego and Los Angeles, four to Santa Barbara and only one to San Luis Obispo. Within five years, Amtrak is planning to expand to six round trips to Santa Barbara and three to San Luis Obispo.

“We believe this is a classic case of ‘If you build it, they will come.’ That’s what our research shows,” Albano said. “These trains are being specially designed for the Pacific Surfliner route.”

The double-decker trains will sport large windows and be more luxurious than the current 30-year-old equipment, much of which was inherited from freight companies when Amtrak was created in 1971. The Pacific Surfliners will be capable of reaching 125 mph, but Albano said they will probably top out at 79 mph because of limitations on the track.

“People are crossing these tracks up and down the coast to go to the beach,” he said. “It doesn’t really work to have oncoming trains going 90 mph.”

Amtrak is spending $125 million for eight new trains, and the California Department of Transportation is buying a ninth for $12 million.

The north end of the San Diegans route serves students at UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, as well as tourists and senior citizens such as Vel Jordan.

Jordan recently took the train from San Luis Obispo to Carlsbad for a mini-vacation with her husband.

“We have a couple of trips we’d like to do, but we are getting to the stage in life where we just don’t like the traffic in Southern California,” she said. “It’s so congested it makes us uneasy.”

The ticket price for an adult riding from San Diego to San Luis Obispo starts at $34 one way.

The California Department of Transportation and Amtrak have spent $500 million on the route since 1990, with some of that money paying for post-El Nino track repairs and refurbished train stations.

Santa Barbara recently reopened a rebuilt station off State Street, and new stations have been added in Lompoc, Carpinteria, Goleta and elsewhere throughout the Central Coast.

Local transportation officials who are among the Pacific Surfliner’s biggest boosters say the new trains address riders’ concerns about the unreliability of the San Diegans in recent years. Because of the age of the equipment, there have been late arrivals and breakdowns.

“We’re not trying to provide a bullet service with lightning quick trains,” said Peter Rodgers, transportation planner in San Luis Obispo. “We’re just trying to get closer to having travel times which are competitive with the automobile.”