Does their train the ‘Coast Starlight’ run on the Surfliner, CalTrans (Amtrak California), or just Amtrak in general? It would have been better if they came up with their own name instead of using SP’s Starlight name In my opinion, it seems unoriginal with the word coast added to the front so it doesn’t seem reused
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This should answer your question:
Note that it does NOT involve operation in the LOSSAN corridor, which I think is unfortunate but probably operationally wise.
Just like the SP, it runs via Oakland (and then Emeryville) and not SF directly.
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Gotcha, Thank you Woke!
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FWIW, the Coast starlight originated/terminated in San Diego for a brief time in the early 1970’s.
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What were the stated reasons they stopped?
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I don’t recall a specific reason other than the Coast Starlight was not very compatible with the needs of the Surf Line. There isn’t much in the way of turning facilities in downtown SD - the 3751 had to turn by Miramar.
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Naturally Pittsburgh gets ignored like always. We’re always last in line for everything cool. The geography of PA to most people might as well just be Philadelphia and the rest of the state falls under the category of “Here be hicks”
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Love your signature quote. So true. And for the latter person mentioned in the quote, it’s worthwhile to stop commenting and let them babble on. To be followed by your no comment, then they have “no log” thrown on the fire to keep it going. LOL I just did that recently. Subject: politics. regards mike endmrw0425251216
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Somehow I doubt you will be missing anything real.
Are there really that many people demanding for overnight service? Most people seem to want to do things (Even traveling ) while awake and during the day.
I can’t even get a 24 hour grocery store…
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It surely looks to me from their early system map, provided at the beginning of this thread
that their route goes right through the Pittsburgh area, perhaps on the (relatively) high-speed P&LE route that was used to kill off the PRR Liberty Limited in the middle Fifties.
If adequate bidirectional traffic were to warrant, I think a stop serving most prospective Pittsburgh clients, and appropriate shuttle/regional connection with amenities, could be very easily provided.
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Wouldn’t the Pittsburg stop be in the middle of the night on a Philly-Chicago run?
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The thing is that they would have all the infrastructure and logistics to run an ‘overnight’ service to Pittsburgh (note sp. for a century now) either as a separate train (which probably wouldn’t pay) or as a section detached from a longer corridor train that would act as a ‘hotel’ until the next morning.
Since they’re a new startup supposedly using their own dedicated equipment, they could (in theory) fix the wack crap with connecting and disconnecting HEP to occupied trains of sleeping people – something I believe the Canadians have already addressed. So you could figure out if there is some reasonably scenic or convenient place to park a short self-contained consist, equip it with shore power and security, and use a hi-rail vehicle of some kind as the ‘switcher’…
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That does seem kind of reasonable to use a hi-rail veichle as a ‘switcher’
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There is no other way aside from motorizing one or more trucks in the consist (as was done on some business cars). That is wildly not cost-effective, and it would take a great deal of work and politicking to get it to pass Amtrak certification (which I think can be taken as minimum guide for any new-build passenger operation expecting to get insurance).
Obviously you’re not going to use a switcher and dedicated crew turn, and somewhat less obviously you wouldn’t cut off a road engine and switch with that.
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Unless they use a unit at each end…
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Is a hi-rail switcher legal in passenger rail operations on occupied cars on the live mainline into the station?
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