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Michael Dukakis, a Presenter at Southern California Transit Advocates Meeting 2/11/2006

Ken Ruben, a long-time member of the Southern California Transit Advocates, official caller of the Internet Radio Show Let's Talk Trains and a friend of mine, arranged for former Masschusetts Governor Michael Dukakis to speak at their February meeting. I have admired Mr. Dukakis for years as a pro-rail supporter and he was the Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 1988. So when Ken invited me to the SOCTA meeting to hear him speak, I could not wait for that day to arrive.

I arose early then drove to Santa Ana and purchased a Business Class ticket for my northbound trip to Los Angeles from Solana Beach. I watched Pacific Surfliner 763 arrive and depart on time and about nine minutes later, Pacific Surfliner 564 came and I enjoyed my southbound journey along the coast this morning and came into full sunshine south of Oceanside. We arrived at Solana Beach a few minutes early and I went into the station then quickly walked over to the Lomas Santa Fe Drive bridge, hoping to get there before the train departed.

Pacific Surfliner 564, from which I had detrained, was now ready to depart. I walked over to a favourite doughnut shop before returning to the northbound platform then Coaster 642 arrived and went into the Del Mar siding before my northbound train arrived.

The train pulled a few minutes late and I boarded the Pacific Business Class Car, which was almost full and took the rear seat and read USA Today while listening to music on my headphones. I enjoy sitting on the land side every now and then just to notice all the changes that have occurred over the last few years. The train made up some time and by Santa Ana, we were back on schedule, where I switched to the other side of the train as I was wondering if Santa Fe 4-8-4 3751 was back at Redondo Junction.

Santa Fe 3751 had returned from Los Angeles Union Station last night to its outdoor home at the former Santa Fe turntable. The roundhouse was razed a few years ago.

I met Eugene, a member of the Southern California Transit Advocates, with whom Ken had arranged to take me to the meeting. I wanted to stop and see Stan Garner, owner of the private car Pony Express, which was waiting to go to San Diego on a Pacific Surfliner 578/591 round trip today. I asked if Stan was there and while he was temporarily not, the bartenders told me to come up and I asked to take some pictures with a "Yes" answer.

Interior of the "Pony Express". Eugene and I then walked over to the Red Line station beneath Union Station, where I bought a day pass.

We went downstairs and found our waiting train ready to take us to Pershing Square station.

We detrained at Pershing Square then returned to the daylight.

As we walked north, we approached the non-operational Angels Flight Railway that will hopefully be restored soon.

I have always enjoyed riding up and down on those tracks. We then walked over to the Angeles Plaza and rode the elevator up to the fourth floor and Room 422, where Ken Ruben found me and thanked me for covering this for Trainweb.com. I talked with several people before taking my seat.

I sat at a table with good friend and train-riding buddy Chris Parker, who was there to videotape the meeting. Everyone introduced themselves before the meeting started and since I was a guest, I just sat back, listened and did not say anything.

A couple of pictures during the meeting. After about thirty minutes, Ken came over and told me it was time to find Governor Dukakis.

Ken, Nate Zablen, another Transit Advocates member, and I then went to meet Governor Dukakis, who was coming to Los Angeles today by the Rapid Bus and Red Line from near UCLA. We all went back up the elevator to the meeting which was occuring.

The meeting ended and refreshments were available. The Governor and I went into the speaking room where we had a few moments to talk and were soon joined by several others who wanted to meet him. Shortly afterwards, everyone returned to their seats.

Mark Strickert, President, welcomed everyone to this portion of the meeting.

Ken Ruben then introduced Governor Michael Dukakis.

Governor Dukakis started off by informing us of his teaching a Master Course at UCLA and his family. He then stated that California could be at the verge of something exciting in rail transportation. He proceeded to tell us that he finished Law School in 1960 and was in the hotel next to the building where Jack Kennedy got his presidential nomination. The air he breathed in Los Angeles back in those days was a toxic soup. The newly-constructed freeway system was not working then and they were still building it. In fact, all over the nation, the craze was to build eight lanes of freeways into cities with a beltway around the civic center. This was 1963. Intercity rail was dying, the MBTA was horrible and questions were being raised about our transportation needs. Continuing to build these freeways into the city would have been the death of city centers. Jack Sherry and the Mayor of San Francisco stopped the Embarcadero Highway. President Kennedy stopped the building of this kind of freeway system in Washington, DC.

Michael Dukakis went back to Boston where it took ten years of fighting, but Governor Sargent finally stopped the Master Highway. Thomas P. O'Neil then had Massachusetts become the first state to use their Highway Trust funds for rail transit in Boston. That $3 Billion fund was used to expand the MBTA and commuter rail. He was concerned that Boston still did not have a rail connection between North and South Stations. Also, there was no rail service to Cape Cod, even though the highways were extremely congested. New rail lines have transformed towns as investment in community development takes place allowing growth and revitalization.

Governor Dukakis reminded the assembled that public transit is for everyone, including the rich, the poor and everyone in between. In the last eleven years, when visiting Los Angeles, the Governor has used rapid transit. California is on the verge of having highways that no longer work. Every new foot of completed highway is filled to capacity. To be successful, it is necessary to have a first rapid transit class system. During the 1984 Olympics, the three to four percent reduction in highway traffic due to trucks being banned restored the freeways to workable. San Diego and San Francisco highways are already congested. The Inland Empire is a disaster waiting to happen because they have no master transportation plan.

California Governor Schwarzenegger proposed $107 Billion over 10 years to meet California Transportation needs. 96 percent of this money is for highways, including 700 miles of new highways. The remaining four percent is for intercity rail. No money is set aside for local rapid transit. State and local leaders have been silent about the Governor's plan. This has become a major problem because we keep repeating the same mistakes by building highways over and over agian with the same results. The mayors and legislators of California must do something now. The State of California needs a High Speed Rail system. Two thirds of the state's population now live in Southern California.

We must connect our cities with a High Speed Rail System. Europe and Japan have had these systems for years, Korea is building one and now Mexico is about to build one. It should be able to be built with 80/20 Federal funding. Los Angeles and San Francisco airports cannot expand, but would not have to if our state had a High Speed Rail system. If a 250 mile per hour rail system could be built, there would be no need for all those local flights within the state. One out of every three domestic flights is less than 300 miles. There is a $15 Billion expansion of O'Hare Airport in Chicago that would not be needed if there was the Ten State Midwest High Speed Rail network. Eliminating most of those local flights would mean that O'Hare would not need to be expanded.

Governor Dukakis next discussed David Gunn, whom he called the best CEO Amtrak ever had. He was doing such a good job that Amtrak's best ever funding bill passed by a vote of 93-6. Five days later, he was fired by a four-member Board that, by law, is supposed to have seven members. Seventy percent of Americans want Amtrak. A politician who would make rail work would be very successful. The old ways of doing things just do not work anymore. Just think, if California increased the number of Surfliner trains from 11 to 16 a day, ridership would jump from over 2 million to almost 6 million passengers. If California would change from highways to rail, the rest of our nation would follow suit.

The Governor then answered questions from the audience then took time to meet and greet everyone and have pictures taken.

Governor Michael Dukakis and the author.

A picture was taken of Governor Michael Dukakis, Ken Ruben and I. After the Governor greeted everyone who wanted to meet him, Eugene and I walked the Governor back to the Pershing Square Red Line station, where he bought his ticket and we walked down to track level.

The Governor and Eugene boarded the westbound train, leaving me to wait for mine.

A few minutes later, my eastbound train for Los Angeles Union Station arrived.

The interior of a Los Angeles subway car.

My train at the Los Angeles Union Station stop, now ready to proceed west to Wilshire and Western.

A minute later, a train for North Hollywood came in. Back at LAUPT, I then headed up to track level to find my southbound train.

I boarded with the idea of taking it to San Juan Capistrano and then taking Pacific Surfliner 785 home to Santa Ana. Knowing the train schedule since the last timetable change, my southbound train would arrive before the northbound. We made our way south running on time with all going well until we received a flashing yellow two signals north of Avery. The next signal was a hard yellow and I knew I was in danger of not making my connection. The train crew was as surprised as I was, and could not believe we would be stopping for at least fifteen minutes.

After we sat for a few minutes at Laguna Niguel, our crew decided to make this a smoking stop as the station had a platform. Once we had a green signal, Pacific Surfliner 582 proceeded to San Juan Capistrano, where I detrained to wait for my northbound train.

Since I had the digital camera with me, I photographed the dome of the San Juan Capistrano Santa Fe station. The building has been modified over the years from being a station to becoming a restaurant. I then waited for a thirty minute-late Pacific Surfliner 587.

While at the station, I talked to a pair of couples from Canada and that helped pass the time. At the same time, the setting sun caused the temperature to drop, so when the train arrived, I was happy to board a nice warm train, which made its way to Irvine then Santa Ana, where this day came to an end. What a great day it had been, meeting the wonderful former Governor Dukakis.

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