Caltrans passenger rail services
Amtrak California
(
reporting mark
CDTX
) is a
brand name
used by the
California Department of Transportation
(Caltrans) Division of Rail for three state-supported
Amtrak
regional rail routes in
California
– the
Capitol Corridor
, the
Pacific Surfliner
, and the
San Joaquins
[1]
– and their associated connecting network of
Amtrak Thruway
transportation services.
History
[
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]
The
National Railroad Passenger Corporation
(Amtrak) assumed operation of almost all intercity passenger rail in the United States in 1971. Service in California, as in most of the United States, was basic and infrequent. In 1976 California began providing financial assistance to Amtrak.
[1]
At the same time, the Caltrans Division of Rail was formed to oversee state-financed rail operations and the brand
Amtrak California
started appearing on state-supported routes.
In 1990, California passed Propositions 108 and 116, providing $3 billion for transportation projects ($7 billion after inflation), with a large portion going to rail service.
[2]
As a result, new locomotives and passenger cars were purchased by the state, and existing inter-city routes expanded. A more distinct image for Amtrak California, such as painting locomotives and passenger cars in "California Color" of blue and yellow, was established with the arrival of new rolling stock.
In 1998, while still funded by the state, the management of the
Capitol Corridor
was transferred to the
Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority
(CCJPA), formed by local jurisdictions of the line serves. In 2015 the management of the
San Joaquin
and the
Pacific Surfliner
were similarly transferred to the
San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority
(SJJPA) and the
Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency
(LOSSAN), respectively.
[3]
As a result, the
Amtrak California
brand became less prominent in the websites and marketing materials.
As of 2022
[update]
Caltrans is studying Amtrak
service to the Coachella Valley
.
Routes
[
edit
]
Pacific Surfliner
[
edit
]
The
Pacific Surfliner
serves
Southern California
on a route between
San Luis Obispo
and
San Diego
via Los Angeles; most trains only travel a portion of the route. It hugs the California coast for most of the route – coming as close as 100 ft (30 m) – providing views of the Pacific Ocean. With 2.7 million passengers in fiscal year 2013, it is Amtrak California's most heavily used service and the most used Amtrak service outside the
Northeast Corridor
,
[4]
behind only the
Northeast Regional
and the
Acela Express
.
[5]
It is also the oldest, dating to 1939 with the
Santa Fe
's
San Diegan
. The train shares codes with
Metrolink's
Ventura County Line
.
San Joaquins
[
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]
The
San Joaquins
operates 14 trains (7 in each direction) each day between
Bakersfield
and
Stockton
. From Stockton, five trains from Bakersfield continue west to
Oakland
, while two trains proceed north to the state capital of
Sacramento
.
Central Valley
communities served include
Fresno
,
Corcoran
,
Hanford
,
Lodi
,
Madera
,
Merced
,
Modesto
,
Turlock
/
Denair
and
Wasco
.
Delta
/
Bay
communities of
Antioch
,
Martinez
, and
Richmond
are also served by the
San Joaquins
. Los Angeles is not served on this route due to the bottleneck of the
Tehachapi Pass
line, where the
Union Pacific
prohibits passenger train use due to
freight
traffic along the world's busiest
single-track railway
. The
San Joaquins
has operated since 1974.
Capitol Corridor
[
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]
The
Capitol Corridor
route, operating since 1991, runs north from
San Jose
through the
East Bay
to Oakland and
Richmond
, then east through the
Delta
communities of Martinez and
Suisun City
, and the
Sacramento Valley
cities of
Davis
and Sacramento. One
Capitol Corridor
train per day continues east of Sacramento during the afternoon commute to the small
Sierra Nevada
town of
Auburn
, returning in the morning. It is the fourth-busiest Amtrak route nationwide.
Thruway Services
[
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]
Amtrak California also contracts for thruway bus services between:
- Emeryville and San Francisco
- San Jose and Santa Cruz
- Bakersfield to San Diego via Los Angeles Union Station and Long Beach
- Merced and Yosemite National Park
- Emeryville and Santa Barbara via San Luis Obispo
- Fullerton and Indio via Palm Springs
- Santa Barbara and Bakersfield
- Santa Maria and Hanford
- San Jose to Santa Barbara via Salinas
Rolling stock
[
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]
Locomotives
[
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]
Amtrak California operates a fleet of
EMD F59PHI
,
GE Dash 8-32BWH
and
Siemens Charger
locomotives. These locomotives are owned by Caltrans and carry the CDTX
reporting marks
.
[6]
Locomotives from Amtrak's national fleet such as the
P42DC
are often used as substitutes when the Amtrak California dedicated fleet of locomotives undergoes maintenance.
The 22 Siemens Charger locomotives are the newest members of the fleet, joined between 2017 and 2021. The Chargers were parts of a multi-state order funded by a combination of federal and state money. Illinois Department of Transportation, acting as the leading agency, awarded the order to
Siemens
on December 18, 2013.
[7]
[8]
Caltrans ordered the first six with the initial order in 2013, then exercised the option to buy 14 more locomotives in 2015 to replace Amtrak-owned locomotives used on the
Pacific Surfliner
.
[9]
Two additional locomotives were ordered in 2016.
Passenger cars
[
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]
California Car / Surfliner bi-level trainsets
[
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]
Amtrak California's routes typically use bi-level, high-capacity passenger cars, dubbed the
Surfliner
and
California Car
. All of the California Cars are owned by the
California Department of Transportation
(Caltrans). Amtrak owns most of the Surfliner cars with some owned by Caltrans.
The design of the cars is based on Amtrak's
Superliner
bi-level passenger cars, but several changes were made to the design to make the vehicle more suitable for corridor services with frequent stops. One significant difference is that the Surfliner and California Car have two sets of automatic doors on each side instead of only one manually operated door on the Superliners, which speeds up boarding and alighting considerably.
[6]
Additionally, Surfliner and California Car coaches are equipped with higher-density seating and
bicycle racks
to permit transport of unboxed bicycles.
Consists on the
San Joaquin
,
Capitol Corridor
, and
Pacific Surfliner
routes usually include between four and six cars, with one locomotive and a cab control car on the rear end.
Superliner I rebuilds
[
edit
]
In 2007, Amtrak California paid for the repair of seven wreck-damaged Superliner Coaches owned by Amtrak in exchange for a six-year lease, intended to quickly add capacity on busy
Capitol Corridor
and
San Joaquin
trains. Four of the cars were painted to match the "California car" livery, and three were painted to match the "Surfliner" livery.
[10]
Comet car single-level trainsets
[
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]
Increasing ridership on the
San Joaquin
led Amtrak California to purchase 14
Comet IB
rail cars from
NJ Transit
in 2008 for $75,000 per car. Caltrans paid approximately $20 million to have these former commuter cars refurbished and reconfigured to serve as intercity coaches at Amtrak's
Beech Grove Shops
.
[11]
Caltrans has also paid to lease three
Non-Powered Control Units
(old
F40PH
locomotives converted to serve as a cab/baggage car). The agency also previously paid to lease and refurbish three
Horizon
dinettes (used as cafe cars).
[11]
Siemens Venture single-level trainsets
[
edit
]
In November 2017, the
California Department of Transportation
announced that it would be ordering seven
Siemens Venture
trainsets through its contractor
Sumitomo Corporation
.
[12]
The states had initially contracted Sumitomo, which in turn subcontracted with
Nippon Sharyo
, to build the
Next Generation Bi-Level Passenger Rail Car
, but a prototype car failed a
buff strength
test in August 2015. After the test failure, Sumitomo canceled its deal with Nippon Sharyo, and turned to Siemens to be the new subcontractor. The cars are being built at the Siemens factory in
Florin, California
and will be hauled by California's existing fleet of diesel-electric locomotives.
California's trainsets will be used exclusively on the San Joaquins service and will consist of seven cars each: four coaches with economy seating, two coaches with economy seating and
vending machines
, and one cab car (control car) with economy seating. The order includes 49 cars for California, formed into seven semi-permanently-coupled trainsets. Since Siemens Venture trainsets were originally designed to be used with high platforms, the SJJPA will modify all stations, adding two
mini-high platforms
(short lengths of high platform, each long enough for one door, with an accessible ramp to the longer low platform).
[13]
Livery
[
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]
Amtrak California utilizes a
livery
and logo that is different from the standard Amtrak colors. All state-contracted
Amtrak Thruway
and state-owned
locomotives
and
passenger cars
, with the exception of equipment used on the
Pacific Surfliner
route, are painted in the "California Colors" of blue and yellow. Each permanently assigned passenger car is named after a geographical feature of California.
The
Capitol Corridor
and
San Joaquins
trains are the two routes most identified with the Amtrak California image, since they extensively use "California Colored" equipment. The other state-supported rail route, the
Pacific Surfliner
, uses a unique blue and silver paint scheme that is different from the other Amtrak California-branded trains.
The NPCUs that operate on the
Capitol Corridor
and
San Joaquins
are painted differently from the locomotives, as they are painted in the old "
Caltrain
" locomotive livery, with an
Amtrak California
and
Caltrans
logo on the sides. The single level cars, both the Comet cars and the Horizon dinettes, have three stripes closest to the boarding doors, orange, blue and green, which resemble the
NJ Transit
livery that was previously used on the Comet cars.
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"About Amtrak California"
. State of California Department of Transportation. 2013. Archived from
the original
on January 2, 2014
. Retrieved
December 22,
2013
.
- ^
Prop. 108: Passenger Rail And Clean Air Bond Act of 1990; California Streets and Highways Code, Division 3, Chapter 17
- ^
Sheehan, Tim (June 26, 2015).
"Valley agency takes control of Amtrak San Joaquin trains"
.
Sacramento Bee
. Retrieved
November 15,
2016
.
- ^
"Amtrak Sets Ridership Record And Moves The Nation's Economy Forward ? America's Railroad helps communities grow and prosper"
(PDF)
(Press release).
Amtrak
. October 14, 2013. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on October 4, 2014
. Retrieved
September 3,
2014
.
- ^
"State of California FY2017 Fact Sheet"
(PDF)
. Amtrak. November 2017
. Retrieved
June 6,
2018
.
- ^
a
b
All Aboard
Amtrak California
- ^
"Multi-State Locomotive Procurement"
(PDF)
.
Illinois Department of Transportation
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on March 18, 2014
. Retrieved
March 18,
2014
.
- ^
Tita, Bob (February 27, 2014).
"Caterpillar Loses High-Speed Train Contract"
.
Wall Street Journal
. Retrieved
May 4,
2015
.
- ^
John Palminteri (November 10, 2015).
"Cleaner Train Engines Coming to the Central Coast"
.
KEYT
. Archived from
the original
on November 18, 2015
. Retrieved
November 17,
2015
.
- ^
Warner, David; Sutton, Harry (March 1, 2022).
"Amtrak Superliner-I Coaches Repaired with California Funds"
.
On Track On Line
. Retrieved
August 28,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
"San Joaquin Rolling Stock Presentation"
(PDF)
. San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority/Caltrans. pp. 35?42
. Retrieved
June 30,
2013
.
[
permanent dead link
]
- ^
"Caltrans Amends Multimillion Dollar, Multi-State Railcar Contract"
(Press release). Caltrans. November 8, 2017.
- ^
"Board Meeting Presentation"
(PDF)
. San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority. May 31, 2019. pp. 23?28. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on May 31, 2021
. Retrieved
August 13,
2020
.
External links
[
edit
]
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