November 6-7, 2004
Sponsored by Train Riders Association of California and the California Rail Foundation at the Canterbury Hotel, 750 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California, USA.
Registration table prior to 10 a.m.
< (View from the speaker's stand)
10 a.m. Alan Miller, opened
the Conference with comments
including his desire for TRAC to be pro-active instead of responding to
bad
projects. This would include
seeking out friendly legislators and capital for rail projects
statewide.
Mr. Miller also
mentioned
that there were 29 spots left on the two-car MUNI streetcar tour for
Sunday,
with the capacity being 80 guests for that rare charter tour of the
system.
Featured Speakers
(in order
of appearance):
Chuck Harvey,
Chief
Operating Officer, Caltrain.
Chuck spoke on
the
wildly popular new Baby Bullet service.
He addressed ridership, the six-month review period process that
will
make suggestions for improvement and expansion of the service,
operation
challenges and flexibility from the operations perspective, a few
stories from
some interesting days on the line.
--from TRAC notes.
His power point
presentation was titled, Caltrains Baby Bullet
Project: Extreme Makeover.
Their objectives
are: Compete with the automobiles along
this
route; Increase the speed of the line:
Maximize investments in infrastructure; and
double weekend service.
They have formed
a very
successful Advisory Board of unions, employees, customers, and critics.
They have built
passing
tracks, remodeled stations, improved access and structures, made train
control
enhancements, and instituted Proof-of-Payment fare collection,
eliminating
conductor/onboard ticket sales.
They also have renumbered trains and redesigned schedules to
accommodate
the Bullet/Express.
With two years of
construction on upgrades during weekends, they have regained their
previous
weekend ridership. Now their
revenues are up and they have a 97% on-time performance.
Parking revenues are up as well.
Their needs
remain: 4-track railroad to accommodate
the UP
freights.
*3 x 5 cards were
handed
out for questions to be given to the speakers throughout the conference
day. However, later it was decided
that with the well phrased questions so far, they would take verbal
questions
after the speaker ns presentation for the rest of the day.
Pete Rodgers, Central California Coast Rail Council, speaking on:
•Status of a
revived Daylight train between LA and San Francisco
•Efforts to
revive a Lark/Spirit of CA overnight coast rail service
•Surfliner
service
expansion to San Luis Obispo:
details on the new train.
•Booming buses
on
SLO-Bay Area route
--from conference preview
One reason I was
impressed
with Peter's presentation was that he provided us with an excellent
brochure
titled, The Coast Daylight (my
underlining) A Plan for Increased Rail Passenger Service between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The
brochure lists this address: Coast
Rail Coordinating Council, 1150 Osos Street, Suite 202, San Luis
Obispo,
CA 93401 Tel:
805-781-5712.
Their website: http://www.slocog.org/reports/coastdaylightplan.pdf
This 21-stop
train would
leave San Francisco at 7:20 a.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 19:00
with
extended service to San Diego arriving at 22:00. It
would leave Los Angeles at 7:50 a.m. and arrive in San
Francisco at 19:20. You can see a
comparison with the Coast Starlight times at their website. They estimate 216,200 passengers per
year. There already is, and
will continue to be free same day local bus service by showing the
Amtrak
ticket.
Still needed for the Daylight:
Equipment, Railroad ownership agreement, and funding.
The reason for
S.F. to L.A.
and not Oakland (where the facilities are located) to L.A. is that
their
research shows 63% of disembarking passengers go to San Francisco and
37% to
Oakland.
The Coast
Starlight is 48%
federally funded, and 52% fare box recovery.
November 17, 2004
there
will be a new Pacific Surfliner from L.A. to San Luis Obispo beginning
at 7:30
a.m. in L.A. and arrive SLO 12:45.
It will turn and at 1:20 p.m. head back to L.A.
One of his slides
was, "What are the causes of delay?"
47% Other
Amtrak/Commuter
Train interference
11% Freight
Interference
10% Signals
5% Speed
restrictions
5% Routing
8% Miscellaneous
6% Mechanical
8% Passenger
Lunch:
As we departed
the
conference room for lunch, I asked what the conference attendance was,
it was
95.
Tyrone Bland,
Amtrak
director of Government Affairs West.
One of the
most popular
speakers at the 2003 Conference, Mr. Bland spoke on the state of
Amtrak,
long-distance routes serving California, the California Rail Program,
working
with David Gunn, and a few anecdotes from his travel-intensive position.
--from conference preview
Notes: A new service of TRAC will be:
Upon receipt of a complaint, the
complaint will be given a case number.
They will then follow up with the agency mentioned in the
complaint
until the complaint is addressed.
This is to encourage membership.
Volunteers are needed to make this program work.
[This reporter
would like
to suggest that we also have an opportunity to send in commendations. And, that they be handled on a case by
case basis, keeping a tally of complaints and commendations for
reporting
purposes. This tally might show
that we are objective in our evaluations.]
The 13 brave
members who
allowed themselves to be nominated for board positions were unanimously
elected
with appropriate offices filled from within the ranks on the board
through
nominations and election.
Maria Ayerdi, Executive
Director, Transbay Terminal Joint Powers Authority
The Transbay
Terminal
will "decades after SP intended and then abandoned the idea" bring
conventional
(and possibly high-speed) rail into the heart of downtown San Francisco. Ms. Ayerdi spoke on the grand terminal
project and gave us a taste of what it will be like to travel into and
through
San Francisco in the coming decades.
This was an interesting talk, as the twists and turns of the
dispute
with the developer of an adjacent property make the status of the
project at
the time of our convention unknown.
--from conference preview
Ms. Ayerdi was
articulate
and her presentation was most professional in explaining this massive
inter modal project.
It will take into
consideration the November, 2006 Bond Measure on High Speed Rail from
Los
Angeles to San Francisco.
This project will
include
3,000+ housing units (1,200 affordable), large hotel and retail
facilities
inside and outside the terminal.
The open architecture will be similar to Vancouver, B.C.
Her documents are
online
at: TransbayProject.org
Jonathan
Garzoli and
Brian Schmidt, Administrative and Operations Directors, Altamont
Commuter
Express (ACE).
Mr.
Garzoli
and Mr.
Schmidt spoke on running California's only conventional rail system
operated
completely outside of the Amtrak structure. They
explored possibilities for ACE service including
Modesto, Sacramento, a connection to BART, and service over a restored
Dumbarton rail bridge.
--from conference preview
ACE provides
onboard Free
WiFi Internet and onboard Education with technology provided by the
University
of Phoenix.
Onboard food and
beverage
service is provided by the riders!
Not a sensitive new age potluck, but the service is
provided by
the riders, not the food itself.
Online ticketing,
including
printing of tickets at home or business is used.
Their "Buddy
Program" is
successful whereby a rider refers another rider and both get 5 days
free
commute plus 5% off for the person who refers and the one who was
referred.
Future Plans: Central Valley Express
A Feature
Panel on
the Status of California High-Speed Rail and Incremental Alternatives to line north and south should the project
fail to
be built in a timely manner. The
panel will feature:
•Melissa
Hippard,
Director, Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club, who coordinated their
review
of the high-speed rail draft EIR for the Bay Area to Central Valley
mountain
crossing.
•Sean Holstege
of the
Oakland Tribune, who recently wrote several articles on the politics of
the
California High-Speed Rail Authority and those seeking to gain from
manipulation of and speculation on the high-speed rail
planning process.
•Members of
TRAC's
high-speed rail project team that submitted comments about the
California high-speed rail project.
--from conference preview
Links for this story:
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