Posts Tagged ‘trains’

LA’s Union Station

October 25th, 2019
LA Union Station

 

It’s been almost two years since my last visit to Los Angeles, a trip I accidentally over-planned to the point where I had three times as much stuff to do as I did time to do it. So today I’ve returned for a few nights in an attempt to cross a few more of those items off the list.

But my first stop was actually a new item for me: Union Station. I’d become interested in the grand train stations of yesteryear during my Ameritrip2019 excursion on Amtrak. Many of these classic stations are named “Union Station” since they served a group — or union — of different passenger train services, like the one in LA still does today.

As it happens Union Station was the closest stop to my Airbnb on the LAX Flyaway “express” bus — which in reality has to share the same clogged freeways with everyone else.

The bus stops at a bus area behind the station. A short walk down a ramp leads into the newer half of the station, with the LA Metro’s subway downstairs, and both the regional Metrolink as well as Amtrak and Amtrak California on the outdoor upstairs level.

 

LA Union Station LA Union Station LA Union Station

 

The main passageway continues straight into the old part of Union Station. Unsurprisingly it’s the most interesting part of the complex, the uniquely beautiful interior in particular.

The building was completed in 1939, combining the Mission Revival style with Art Deco — a combination that sounds objectively terrible on paper, but the designers somehow fit it together perfectly. It’s worth noting the LA City Hall was designed by the same team.

Today the old half of the station is mostly waiting areas with shops, cafes, and a pair of outdoor courtyards. Still, my favorite feature in today’s 98F weather was a little more modern — the air conditioning.

Riding Amtrak’s California Zephyr: The trains

May 8th, 2019

Amtrak
 

As I outlined in my first post about the trip, in spring 2019 I took a trip across America via train on the California Zephyr route with stops in Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Omaha before returning home to San Francisco. In this blog post I’ll go over the trains themselves before delving into other aspects of traveling this route in future posts.

On the California Zephyr Amtrak has to share all the rails with slow moving freight trains, which often leads to delays. There are only a few sections where they can floor it and make up for lost time — and even those sections aren’t exactly high speed. On straighter sections of the track the trains can hit about 80 MPH at most, but on the winding, curved sections of track it may go as low as about 35 MPH. (Take these measurements with a grain of salt as I came up with them from an app on my phone.)

The train layout is relatively straightforward. In the front are two massive engines. Following the engines is the luggage car, which can be used for checked bags if and only if you’re starting and stopping at stations which provide luggage service. Next are the Superliner cars: the sleeper cars, dining car, the lounge/cafe car, and the coach cars.

The way the passenger cars connect on a Superliner is a bit unique. They’re all double decker train cars and the only passageway between cars is on the second level. Downstairs there’s areas for passengers with disabilities, bathrooms, the cafe on the lounge car, or the staff-only kitchen area on the dining car. If you’re in a roomette the shower is on the lower level.

For most of the trip I rode coach. In many ways coach on Amtrak is nicer than what you’d find on airlines; every seat is either a window or aisle seat, and they all have a generous amount of legroom. There’s an outlet for each seat to charge your phone or laptop.

 
Amtrak Roomette Amtrak Superliner Roomette
Superliner Roomette: Day vs. night configuration
 

I spent two nights sleeping on the train in private “roomettes,” tiny rooms with blackout curtains and fold-out beds in the sleeper cars. These are worth considering if you’re a light sleeper and have trouble getting a full night’s sleep in coach.

Each roomette can fit two able-bodied people with a bunk bed, and even features a tiny closet with hangers. Larger rooms are available for families and groups, but they cost more.

Although fairly comfortable and clean, the coach and sleeper cars look old and aren’t always well maintained. The worst thing I saw was a toilet seat that wasn’t at all attached to the toilet.

 
California Zephyr
Enjoying a beer in the lounge
 

Anyone’s free to wander into the lounge and cafe car. Upstairs there’s large windows with skylights and two seating areas, one with booths and one with seats facing the windows.

The cafe is downstairs in the same car — it’s not really a cafe so much as a small convenience store. Depending on the model you’re riding, the cafe will either be a window where you order or a small room where you serve yourself and check out.

At least during my trip the dining car had freely open times for breakfast and lunch, for dinner the staff walked through the train to take reservations. Meal details were announced over the speakers throughout the train. On the dining car the waiters hang out near the center, communicating with the kitchen staff below. To be seated you have to walk up to them and ask for a table.

As for other amenities:

  • The trains have wifi… sometimes. I can’t blame Amtrak for this entirely but I blew through my T-Mobile monthly data cap both months during the trip.
  • The first sleeper car I rode in ran out of hot water before I had a chance to take a shower. The second one had hot water and it was glorious! There’s nothing quite like falling asleep in one place and waking up in another — but trust me, it’s so much better with a shower and change of clothes.
  • The biggest amenity is the windows. Unlike passenger jets there’s a clear view of everything outside as long as the sun’s out. On a route this long there’s plenty to see out there.

SF Central Subway vs. California High Speed Rail

November 10th, 2010

A while back, San Francisco’s MTA got a big bundle of federal cash to build Muni’s “Central Subway” project. This new subway line will create an underground connection between CalTrain’s 4th and King station, Union Square, and Chinatown.

This area is horribly congested with traffic so the idea has merit. It would allow folks from the peninsula and South Bay to hop off Caltrain and take a quick subway ride to Union Square and Chinatown.

Meanwhile, there’s another plan being developed separately — a plan that would build a high speed railway from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Between SF and Gilroy, the new railway would follow the existing CalTrain route.

But instead of terminating at 4th and King, the new High Speed Rail line — as well as CalTrain — would be extended via subway and terminate at 1st and Mission. Construction on the new station and subway train box is already underway.

Now, any reasonable person looking at a map can see that 4th and King is awfully close to 1st and Mission. Especially for a train. So close together, in fact, that keeping the existing 4th and King station seems excessive.

Which leads me to wonder: aren’t these two plans mutually exclusive? Either the 4th and King station will be gone, and the Central Subway will effectively go nowhere, or CalTrain will have to keep an awkwardly placed station just to connect to the Central Subway.

Overall, I think the High Speed Rail makes a lot of sense. It’s fast, electric, can be powered by renewable resources, and trips will take less time than an airplane. But there’s something being lost in the planning process, and it needs to be fixed if they’re serious about building it.