California State Rail Plan 2007-08 to 2017-18

Chapter V – The California Passenger Rail NetworkCoast Starlight (Los Angeles-Oakland-Sacramento-Portland-Seattle)The Coast Starlight’s daily round-trip is the most popular long distance train in theAmtrak system. For many years, demand has often outstripped capacity duringsummer and holiday travel periods. A substantial portion of the Route’s ridershipis generated by intrastate California travel. The Route provides the only railservice north from Sacramento to Redding and Oregon, and the only through railservice from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. Direct connections with thePacific Surfliner at Los Angeles effectively extend the route south to San Diego.Connections with the San Joaquins at Sacramento and Martinez provideCentral Valley access for travelers to and from the north. Portland and Seattle arekey stops to the north. Ridership in FFY 2005-06 on the service’s one dailyround-trip totaled 331,939, a decrease of 10.8 percent from the previous year.California Zephyr (Emeryville-Sacramento-Reno-Denver-Chicago)The California Zephyr provides daily round-trip regional service in theEmeryville-Sacramento-Reno corridor; extra coaches are often operated on thisportion of the route to handle heavy loads to and from Reno. Connecting buseslink Emeryville with San Francisco. A stop in Truckee serves Lake Tahoe andnearby Sierra ski areas. Salt Lake City, Denver, Lincoln and Omaha are also stopson the route to Chicago. Ridership in FFY 2005-06 was 335,443, n decrease of3.6 percent from the prior year.Southwest Chief (Los Angeles-Albuquerque-Kansas City-Chicago)The daily round-trip Southwest Chief provides the only rail service in Californiafrom Los Angeles east to Victorville, Barstow and Needles. The Route continuesto the Grand Canyon at Flagstaff and to Albuquerque, Kansas City, and Chicago.Ridership was 300,416 in FFY 2005-06, an increase of 1.7 percent from theprior year.Sunset Limited (Los Angeles-San Antonio-New Orleans-Orlando)The Sunset Limited operates three days a week in each direction and is the onlyrail service to Palm Springs. It continues east, connecting California to Tucson,El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, and New Orleans. It is Amtrak’s onlytranscontinental passenger train. The Texas Eagle, which links Chicago withSan Antonio, carries through-cars to and from the Sunset Limited. Ridership inFFY 2005-06 was 51,860, a decrease of 36.2 percent from the previous year.It should be noted that this train formerly continued to Mobile, Jacksonville andOrlando but has had a truncated route since Hurricane Katrina.AMTRAK RIDERSHIP BY STATIONFigure 5F shows ridership at each Amtrak train and bus station in California forFFYs 2002-03 through 2005-06. This table includes ridership on State-supportedtrains and buses as well as Amtrak’s long distance routes. Stations with ticketagent or checked baggage services are also identified.85