CALIFORNIA RAIL 2020 CONFERENCE

6-8 NOVEMBER 2009

Report and Photos by: Carl Morrison, Carl@TranWeb.com

Conference Presentations

(Click any photo below for a double-sized copy; Click BACK in your browser to return to this page)


Bob Reynolds, Secretary and Sacramento Office Volunteer.	Rich McLaughlin, Vice President

John Webb, left; G. Clifford Grutze, right.

When I walked into the Conference Room, G. Clifford Grutze of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District (SMART) introduced himself and asked if I would put a link to SMART in my report. That link is: http://www.sonomamarintrain.org/ And I will make it a hot link on the Links Page of this Report.

He was with John Webb of Trinidad, CA, who is working on "Timber Heritage" of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, http://sunnyfortuna.com/railroad/ in Humboldt County.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District – SMART – will build a 70-mile passenger railroad and parallel bicycle-pedestrian path along the publicly owned Northwestern Pacific Railroad right of way through the two counties. The rail line runs from Cloverdale, at the north end of Sonoma County, to Larkspur, where the Golden Gate Ferry connects Marin County with San Francisco. Along the way SMART will have stations at the major population and job centers of the North Bay: San Rafael, Novato, Petaluma, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg. --SMART Website

Attendees

Registration Desk sign

Fillmore & Western's Exhibit

The Conference began with Rich's Title Slide

The Agenda, a very important slide for us reporters.

Rich mentioned that all the speakers had canceled and been replaced in the last 3 weeks before this Conference. He said he had prepared this slide, "Railroading in Antarctica" (see the train?) which is an actual photograph of him at the South Pole with a train that "circled the world."

Rich also showed the route of the Rare Mileage Excursion we would be taking on Sunday on the Fillmore & Western Railway from Saticoy to Piru and return to Fillmore.

Mary Travis
Ventura County Transit Commission

Mary spoke eloquently of Ventura County's current and future transit agenda.

Christy Weir
Mayor of Ventura, Welcomed us.

Their current need is to have commuter service between Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Mary Travis listed the railroads/trains in Ventura County: Port Hueneme, which owns the rail line for freight from the port; the Surfliner; the Coast Starlight; and Metrolink. The first Metrolink arrived 10/26/1992, and now there are 8 round trips a day. After the 1994 earthquake, service was extended to Camarillo and Oxnard. Five stations in Ventura County. There have been 2 major incidents in the county, SUV on the track and the Chatsworth crash. New trains have crash absorbing features and interiors have break-away tables. There are sealed corridors in cities along the way. Positive Train Control (PTC) is now in the works since Chatsworth. Ventura County purchased the Santa Paula Branch from Southern Pacific, and UP wants it back. She said if we called passengers "Human Containers" UP might be easier to work with. The Santa Suzanna tunnels have been reinforced. The Santa Paula Branch line would be a bypass to the tunnels. there is limited freight on the Santa Paula Line. The Fillmore & Western Excursion train has money from Ventura Transit Commission for right of way improvements. Many western movies are filmed on the Fillmore & Western Line. A problem is single track and old sidings through the county. UP dispatches north of Moorpark.

See the Links Page at the end of this Report for copies of the slides of the presenters.

Jonathan Hutchison Gave us his Amtrak Update His talking points follow:	Presentation Outline
	Jonathan pointed out that the operations and capital funds are separated and there may be a situation when new cars are ready, but not enough money to operate them.

	Art Brown Metrolink/OC Service Expansion
Metrolink Service Expansion Program Update

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IMG_4785.jpg

Gary Gallegos SANDAG/COASTER/SD LOSSAN

Attendees were ready for lunch.
	And it was a delicious buffet.

Leslie Rogers
US Department of Transportation

Alex Clifford
SOCAL HSR

Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension - Operations

	Bruce Shelburne Urban Rail / LA Metro
Bruce mentioned that this was not the font that he used to create the power point, so any over runs are not his fault.


This also happens to be the view from his office!	Aerial Structure across Hwy. 101 from LAUS

A virtual tour of the Metro Gold Line Expansion

Little Tokyo - Arts District Station	Pico/Aliso
West Portal - First and Gless Sts.	Mariachi Plaza - First St. and Boyle Ave.

Soto	"Downey Dip" under SR60 Third St. and Downey Rd.
Maravilla - 3rd St. and Ford Blvd.	East Los Angeles Civic Center 3rd. and Mednik Ave.

Atlantic - Pomona and Atlantic Blvd.	Fleet Assignment
Travel Time	Span of Service

Trains	Schedule Headways
Bus / Rail Interface	Passenger Boardings

Richard Katz
HSR in California

Mike McGinley METROLINK Perris Valley Extension

Laura Balderree, was elected TRAC President.

In her acceptance speech, she encouraged the membership to:

1) Advocate rail their their local communities, A sample advocacy would be to write letters to the editor. For each person who writes a letter to an editor, there are many who have the same feeling, but don't write their letter.

2) Advocate good connections to rail.

3) Speak up for rail at MPO, city councils, etc.

4) Help educate first-time long-distance train travelers that the schedules are "pleasant fiction," so don't watch them constantly. Take audio book on the train so you can listen and look at the scenery.

5) Encourage TRAC membership

Laura Balderree, New TRAC President

DesertXpress

The DesertXpress speaker, Dr. Tom Stone, was not able to make it to the conference, but Mike McGinley showed the slides and commented where possible.

This is a proposed new train from Las Vegas, NV, to Victorville, CA, with an extension to Palmdale, California. Without knowledge of the Palmdale connection prior to this meeting, we all wondered, "Why Victorville." It is a proposed 155 - 186 mph train which is the low end of high speed trains. It is powered by electricity which has the capacity to regenerate electricity when doing downhill. The price tag, $4 Billion for 200 miles, is a good price according to to Mike.

CALIFORNIA RAIL 2020 CONFERENCE

Conference Presentations

(Click any photo below for a double-sized copy; Click BACK in your browser to return to this page)

See the Links Page at the end of this Report for copies of the slides of the presenters.

A virtual tour of the Metro Gold Line Expansion

Laura Balderree, was elected TRAC President.

In her acceptance speech, she encouraged the membership to:

DesertXpress

Next: Fillmore & Western Sunday Excursion

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Amtrak Specialist: Travel Agent - Carole Walker at 877-459-5900