The Coast Starlight Detour That Wasn't
Oakland - Eugene - San Jose
Plus the RailPAC 2003 Annual Meeting in Oakland
By Matt Melzer of TrainWeb.com
http://www.trainweb.com/travelogues/mattmelzer/2003d05a.html

04/05/2003, RailPAC Annual Meeting, Oakland, CA

We walked the quarter-block to the Yia-Yia Sandwich Shop, one of those little-known, family-owned diners that isn't much to look at, but has excellent food. After being greeted by the rest of the RailPAC Board of Directors, I went inside to the rear dining room, which was cozy and easily held the 20 or so attendees. This attendance is, of course, lower than one might expect for an annual meeting of an organization with thousands of members. However, it was only one of several regional meetings that RailPAC has been having across the state, allowing admissions fees to be waived and allowing the meetings to focus on local issues. The result is, actually, far more members attending the meetings as a whole than usually come to the annual meeting. The only reason this particular meeting was designated the annual meeting was due to the fact that it was the meeting where the 2003-2004 RailPAC Board would be appointed.

Focusing on the future, Skoropowski reaffirmed that the 12th Capitols round trip would begin with the April 28 schedule change, which is, remarkably, double the amount of service offered when the JPB took over management in 1998. He noted that, upon completion of upgrades on the UP between Oakland and San Jose, 6 round trips would be possible on that segment with the current levels of equipment. Skorowpowski summarized the pending improvements, traveling east to west. Within a couple years, a new station would be opened at Oakland International Airport, by the BART station. The tracks would also receive CTC dispatching and double-tracking. More double-tracking would also be installed in the Fremont-Newark area. However, there are no immediate plans for double tracks through the wetlands area between Newark and Santa Clara, as that will require environmental mitigation that may take a few years. Lastly, a major track reconstruction project will take place between CP Coast (Santa Clara) and San Jose. This includes a complete track rebuild for the 2 miles between CP Coast and the UP Newhall Yard (which has just been downsized, creating additional space for passenger trains), as well as a bit more double-tracking. This will create the capacity for 11 round trips on the Oakland-San Jose segment, pending the eventual purchase of additional rolling stock and locomotives.

Skoropowski continued by reflecting on the accomplishments of his office in improving the Capitols as a whole. He noted that the JPB has improved efficiency to the point that it will operate 24 trains with state subsidies designed to run only 16. This is accomplished by targeted, thoughtful, modest fare increases, the elimination or restructuring of lightly used Thruway bus routes, and improvement in the efficiency of daily Amtrak operations. Because travelers now have more choices than ever, with more and faster trains, ridership continues to shatter records, underscoring the fact that Amtrak ridership is dependent on the amount of service available. After all, travelers will not ride trains that don't exist, and would ride such sparsely operated trains as the Sunset Limited or Cardinal exponentially more if more frequencies (at least daily) were available.

Skoropowski concluded his speech by praising Amtrak President and CEO David L. Gunn and giving an optimistic outlook for Amtrak as long as it is in Gunn's hands. Many attendees at the meeting were surprised to learn that Skoropowski has worked with Gunn at 3 different railroads and transit agencies in the past, giving him authority to reassure us that Gunn is genuine when he espouses his beliefs in a single set of financial books, with full public disclosure, as well as honesty and practicality in addressing problems within the company. Skoropowski, who is also a Director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers (NARP) noted that, almost as soon as NARP coined the term "national network trains" to put a new positive spin on long-distance trains, Amtrak picked up on the term and began to use it themselves, a move that recent previous Amtrak administrations might have never taken. Gunn is straightforward in his call for a national rail trust fund, in which states would put up 20% of funds of rail development and operations, with an 80% match from the federal government, much in the manner transit systems are funded. There is no way to get around the fact that it takes a paltry $300 million to operate the current system of national network trains, and would become even more efficient if the system was further developed. After taking questions from attendees, Skoropowski, who is famous for making himself available for communication for the general public, made a point to announce his e-mail address (eskorop@bart.gov) before he would leave the meeting. Skoropowski wants interested parties to make no mistake that he takes his job very seriously, and takes it to heart, going so far as to gleefully pronounce, "The Capitol Corridor is the best job I've ever had."

Ric Silver carried the balance of the meeting by outlining issues on which RailPAC has recenly focused its attention, such as extension of the Capitols and/or San Joaquins northward to Redding, development of the Los Angeles-Palm Springs corridor, and reinstating an overnight, full-service Bay Area-Los Angeles train. Much conversation was sparked when he brought up the issue of a possible permanent reroute of the Southwest Chief off of the Raton Line, for which BNSF is now demanding $50 million to maintain at FRA Class IV standards, otherwise the line may be downgraded, sold, or put out of service. Talks are currently underway between Amtrak and BNSF to reroute the Chief onto BNSF's transcontinental mainline via Amarillo, Texas, which would mean loss of service to Lamy (gateway to Santa Fe), Raton (gateway to Denver), and other stations. The loss of Raton would be particularly devastating, because of the through ridership on buses to Denver, and because of the thousands of Boy Scouts to take Amtrak to the Philmont Scout Ranch every year. More on this issue remains to be seen.

The meeting concluded at 12:45 PM, and Joseph and I headed to the Oakland Amtrak station, where I placed my backpack into parcel check. We took BART from 12th Street to Berkeley and walked to his apartment, which is centrally located near the heart of Telegraph Avenue (Joseph is a senior at UC Berkeley). After we conversed for a while, I left to meet up with old friends from high school in Los Angeles who were now UC Berkeley students. I returned to Joseph's apartment around 7 PM, and he informed me that my train 14 was running about a half-hour late. We left an hour later for the Oakland Amtrak station, taking BART to Lake Merritt and walking from there. I claimed my backpack and bid farewell to Joseph as train 14 arrived at 9:54 PM, 22 minutes late. The HEP was cut for a few minutes, as a private car (which looked to be the Scottish Thistle, though I couldn't tell definitively in the dark) was cut out from the rear of the train. I was assigned to seat 1 (a bulkhead seat) of the 1412 coach by the attendant Monica. I asked her to send the conductor my way so that I could look into upgrading to sleeping accommodations, but they were sold out. Moreover, no one seemed to know if we would be taking the infamous detour. Though we were less than an hour late, the fact that the change to Daylight Savings Time that night, and thus an automatic delay to our train of an hour, was reason to believe that we might detour. We departed Oakland at 10:14 PM.

04/05/2003, Amtrak Train 14, Oakland to Eugene

I settled into my seat with the intention of going to sleep after finding out definitively whether or not we would detour. Seated across from me was a lady and her 3 year-old daughter (who was, thankfully, very well-behaved). They too were going to Eugene, having taken the San Joaquins from Southern California to Oakland. I asked why they didn't board this train in Los Angeles, and the lady responded that she was the friend of a conductor on the San Joaquins, affording her and her daughter a free ride for that portion. On a hunch, I asked her if her friend was a particular conductor who's also an acquaintance of mine, and it turned out to be the same person! Needless to say, it was fun to converse about someone I knew with a complete stranger! By the stop in Davis, the rest of my entire car was asleep, and I enjoyed the quiet, beautiful ride over the I Street Bridge into Sacramento, where we arrived a couple dozen minutes late. There were no announcements about any possible detour as we departed at 12:46 AM, 47 minutes late, or, 13 minutes too soon to detour! I asked the new conductor once more if we would detour, and he responded, "Not unless you come up with something!" After moving my watch an hour forward, I stayed awake until I saw, with my own eyes, our train take the north leg of the wye at Binney Junction and diverge onto the UP Valley Sub, the Coast Starlight's normal route. I then went to sleep at about 1:45 AM

04/06/2003, Amtrak Train 14

I awoke 4 hours later around Delta, as we weaved through the gorgeous Upper Sacramento River Canyon. After changing clothes and getting freshened up, I noticed a seemingly endless caravan of UP track maintenance equipment, ready to begin the day's work of concrete tie installation. I detrained briefly in Dunsmuir and went to the dining car for a breakfast of french toast. I had the fortune of being seated across from a gentleman who seemed to be, to put it lightly, a bit eccentric, if not mentally ill. Sure enough, not a half-hour later, he was discovered to be drunk and belligerent in the lounge car. The conductors confiscated a mostly empty bottle of Jagrmeister from him, and informed him that Klamath Falls would be his end of the line. North of Shasta City, snow appeared on the ground, and as soon as we entered Oregon, it began to snow, in April! Snow was still falling steadily as we arrived into Klamath Falls, and every child on the train immediately ran outside to play in the white stuff! Surely, many of these kids were from California and had never seen snow before. One child even yelled, "It's Christmas now!" I'm sure the sentiment wasn't shared by the drunkard -- he was met by police from Klamath Falls and UP, and was escorted away after being questioned briefly.

Indeed, train 11 arrived at 6:03 PM, 53 minutes late. I found the conductor and inquired about upgrading. He directed me to the 1114 rear coach and said he would come by soon to take care of me. I was greeted at my coach by the friendly attendant Hugo, who placed me upstairs in the seat directly in front of the top of the staircase. I noticed that this Superliner II coach, 34113, was peculiar in that the seatbacks were replaced with the old, dated Superliner I decor! Just when I thought Amtrak was working to modernize their fleet, this seemed like a step backwards. I noticed the same phenomenon in one of the other coaches, 34116. I had also noticed the same in coach 34114 on my train 14 that day, but I didn't think anything of it at the time. As we departed Eugene, my seatmate walked in from the lounge, obviously very irate that Hugo had placed me next to him! He used some choice words that I wouldn't repeat, then said he'll never take Amtrak again! I told him to settle down and assured him that I would be leaving very soon, as I would be moving to a bedroom. He lamented that he had inquired about getting a bedroom to wherever his destination was, but would not stomach the $150 accommodations charge. We departed a few minutes later, and the friendly conductor quickly came by to inform me that there was one Standard Bedroom available. He said that if I could hang out in the lounge car for a moment, he would inform my sleeper attendant that I would be on my way.

After I spent a few minutes in the crowded Sightseer Lounge car, the conductor came back and took me to the more peaceful Pacific Parlour car, where I was met by my attendant, Bryan Payne. He asked me to sit tight while he prepared my room, and came back about ten minutes later to show me to my accommodations. Bryan is the kind of sleeping car attendant every Amtrak traveler would want to be served by! From the moment he first saw me, he was friendly, attentive, and professional in every way. He greeted me with a firm handshake, and made sure he learned my name quickly, as he clearly knew all of his passengers on a first-name basis. Without hesitation, carried my bag to my room, and ensured I had everything I needed. He also let me know that I could eat at the last call for dinner, which would be around 8 PM. I would later notice that Bryan was always out and about in the hall, every time I went outside! Far too many sleeping car attendants are complete ghosts, seemingly going out of their way to hide from their customers and not serve them. Bryan was the exact opposite. I got settled into my room, Standard Bedroom #11 in the 1132 Superliner II Sleeper, Illinois. The conductor soon came by to collect my accommodations charge, which was an even $100 from Eugene to San Jose. It took him a few minutes to collect my credit card information and produce my receipt, so he told me a few interesting stories from the debacles of the recent Coast Starlight detours.

I soon went to the Parlour car to wait to be called for dinner. Walking through the sleepers, I noticed that Amtrak has eliminated 10-ounce glass bottles as their nonrevenue Pepsi products, and replaced them with the more familar 12-ounce cans. Presumably, the old style of those bottles is falling out of favor. I also noticed bottles of Evian water as well as the usual Dannon water. (Evian is a product of Dannon, but tends to be more expensive for consumers. I'm not sure if Amtrak had to pay extra for that water.) The Parlour car was filled with other hungry travelers waiting for the final call for dinner. By coincidence, I sat across from a railfan and TrainWeb reader, Paul Wilcox-Baker, who had e-mailed the TrainWeb office, knowing that a TrainWeb employee would be on his train! He was traveling with his partner, Michael, to Emeryville. I got into a lively discussion with the travelers around me about euthanasia, as a lady recalled how she had to obey her father's wishes and not keep him on life support in the last days of his life. I was certainly traveling with an irreverent bunch, considering all the laughter that was had over the topic of assisted suicide! The daylight faded as we climbed Willamette Pass on the first day of Daylight Savings Time, and I pointed out how increasingly snowy the scenery would become as we gained elevation (though it would be increasingly difficult to enjoy without daylight).

At about 8 PM, the last call for dinner was made, and I went along with a good number of passengers into the dining car. I was seated next to a rather obese lady who easily took up the majority of the bench. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that she was wearing a vest that was filled with her various belongings! After she moved the side of her vest onto her lap, I was able to sit down. Seated across from us was yet another rail enthusiast, whose name escapes me. He too boarded in Eugene as a coach passenger, but upgraded to a Deluxe room. He said that he would've taken the Standard room had I not gotten to it first, but said that he was enjoying his first trip in a Deluxe Bedroom. Amazingly, in his 400,000 miles of rail travel to date, he had not traveled in a Deluxe room until that point. Our server for dinner was Nina Smith, who used to be part of the famed Crew Ten of the Amtrak Southwest Chief. The Crew Chief for the now-defunct Crew Ten was Bob Stone, who is also the webmaster of their web site. I told Nina that I had seen Bob working on the Coast Starlight as well just one week previous! To eat, I had the Special, which was meatloaf. The seasonings that were used made a tremendous difference in the taste. Much meatloaf is bland and tasteless, but this meatloaf was excellent. I finished my meal with a slice of key lime pie, which was also very tasty -- even tastier than the key lime pie Amtrak used to serve. I definitely approved of the new menus Amtrak has begun to use! Soon after the train paused briefly at Chemult, I returned to my car to shave and shower, one of the many things I could not have done had I stayed in coach! After getting dressed, I went to the Parlour car to watch our train pass Crater Lake. I detrained to get some fresh air during our service stop in Klamath Falls. The air was colder outside than it had been that morning when it was snowing, but the snow had completely melted during the day! I noticed that our new crew was the same crew I had going north out of Sacramento on train 14. After our departure (about an hour late), I went to my room to retire for the night, falling asleep sometime before midnight.

04/07/2003, Amtrak Train 11

I had asked Bryan to wake me up at 8:15 AM, which would've given me sufficient time to eat breakfast in the diner before our 9:55 AM arrival into San Jose (I knew that, after all, our train could've made up a significant amount of time during the night). However, I awoke on my own at 7 AM, and noticed that we were nowhere near the Bay Area -- we were passing through Red Bluff! That would've made us well over 3 hours late, presumably due to UP freight congestion during the night. We stopped at Chico about 4 hours late, and I went to the dining car for breakfast. While I was not enjoying rare mileage, I was enjoying rare scenery not usually seen during the daytime. It was especially beautiful because of the plentiful rains Northern California had received this past winter.

Along with most everyone else in the Parlour car, I went to lunch at the first call at 12 noon. I was seated across from two ladies who were heading to Simi Valley. They were not worried about our train's certain late arrival there, as they had their car at the station and lived just a few blocks away! I had the grilled chicken sandwich with swiss cheese. It was undoubtedly the best sandwich I had ever eaten aboard Amtrak! The quality of the ingredients used in the preparation of the meals clearly improved by leaps and bounds along with the new dining car menus. During our stop in Martinez, the ladies noticed the numerous railfans sitting around at the station there, writing down our train's consist, and commented at the novelty of their hobby. One of the dining car attendants joked that these are the people who visit sites like TrainWeb, and I immediately interjected that I was working as a correspondant for TrainWeb! While TrainWeb is much more than a web site for railfans, it's always refreshing to know that our name is well-known in the Amtrak community.

Click on the below links to view each set of photos:
Set #01 - RailPAC Annual Meeting in Oakland
Set #02 - Snow in and around Klamath Falls, OR
Set #03 - Snow between Klamath Falls and Chemult
Set #04 - Snow through Willamette Pass
Set #05 - Eugene Amtrak Station
Set #06 - Marysville to Sacramento
Set #07 - Emeryville, Private Cars at Oakland
Set #08 - Oakland to San Jose

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