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Coast Starlight 14 seems to consistently fall off schedule between San Luis Obispo, Paso Robles and Salinas. However, it's usually on-time up through San Luis Obispo. Anyone know what's up? This is a pattern I've noticed from riding the train over the past couple years. Maybe they need to adjust the schedule?
Posts: 29 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
The station agent in Salinas pretty much told me the same thing as Jonothan. Freight traffic around Paso Robles tends to slow Amtrak down in that area. I actually saw it happen the last time we drove up 101 coming back from Santa Barbara. Just north of Paso Robles we saw #14 stopped on a siding. It was right at a freeway exit, and I would have stopped for photos if I'd had any film left in my camera. A few minutes later we passed a long southbound freight train.
Incidentally, earlier that same day, we happened to be near the Santa Barbara station when #14 went through. We had lunch nearby as it went on its way. We caught up to it about three hours later.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
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I just looked up #14's performance the last few days, as we will be on it in a couple of weeks. It really is having more troubles than usual. Typically it is about 30-60 minutes late into Salinas. It has been well over an hour late on most days. On the 7th it was over 4 hours late. Something happpened between Santa Barbara (one hour late) and San Luis Obisbo (three hours late). But by the time it got to Salem (our destination) it was only 2 hours late.
I would be really bummed if I had to spend 4 hours at the Salinas station. There's nothing to do there. We take the Thruway bus from Monterey, so we don't have much choice.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
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I too will be on the CS in a couple of weeks. One day recently it was EIGHT HOURS late. Thus I need that electrical outlet so's I can watch a few movies at my seat if we don't get into Seattle until 5AM !
Posts: 218 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
It's not always freight trains. A trip I took last week from Portland to Los Angeles was pretty much flawless except for the Salinas area.
They were doing track work out there, which means slow orders are bound to be posted. We went for a good distance going no faster than 25 mph on 60 mph track, and had to stop and call at every red flag.
Not a freight train in sight. Now think if we had to wait for a freight train in that slow order, that'd really screw us up. We still got into Los Angeles early though.
Posts: 82 | From: Irvine, CA | Registered: Feb 2002
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I live in the San Jose-area, so I have taken the Starlight from LA to San Jose many times (I never tire of the scenery). The experience of "inching along" south of Salinas has been pretty common in my experience, and I can't remember the last time we arrived on-time in San Jose (although usually 14 is only 1/2 hour to 1 hour late). Today (2/12), however the train 14 is 3 1/2 hours late as of Salinas and it had a couple of 4 hour delays during the past couple weeks.
Posts: 29 | Registered: Dec 2002
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