TrainBlog by Marcel Marchon

Last Monday evening around 10:15pm, a Capitol Corridor engineer was assaulted by a group of trespassers in West Sacramento, CA. The Sacramento-bound train was halted shortly before the I-Street bridge because debris had been placed on the track. Apparently, the conductor then left the train to investigate. When the engineer saw that the conductor was being threatened by a group of juveniles, he also descended from the train in order to assist the conductor. Subsequently, the engineer was assaulted and severely beaten. He had to be hospitalized after the assault. Apparently, no passengers were harmed in the incident.

This is very disturbing - don’t these people have better things to do? Do they seriously think it’s fun to just stop a train and then beat up the engineer?

[via sfgate.com]

It looks like it has been a bad week for Capitol Corridor riders, due to the fact that Union Pacific had to undertake some urgent bridge replacement work on that route. Here are a couple extract from Gene Skoropowski’s “Message to Riders“:

Then the bottom fell out of the plan. Union Pacific engineering forces discovered major deterioration of two bridges in the middle of the planned tie renewal work area. (…) So, this week, UP bridge forces undertook a major effort to get the bridges replaced. (…) Due to the ongoing bridge replacement, this week has been a colossal mess, especially on the later morning trains and the early afternoon trains. Throw in a few signal problems, a drawbridge opening or two, a couple of vehicles and assorted debris intentionally placed on the tracks, a freight train with a crew that reached its legal ‘hours-of-service’ limit (federal law says the freight train stops when the crew uses up their allotted work hours, and the train then sits on the track until a relief crew can be found and sent out by van, taxi …or helicopter…!!) and we have the basic ingredients for the collapse of service.

I am really amazed by all this. I mean, seriously: do bridges just suddenly go bad from one day to the next (short of something like a washout)? Aren’t they (Union Pacific - they own the track) doing some sort of ongoing maintenance and checks on their trackwork? Shouldn’t they detect issues like that early on? And also, how can a crew just ‘die’ on the road? Shouldn’t the dispatchers, etc. know about this? Wouldn’t it be way more efficient to run all trains in a scheduled manner? They’d be much more predictable that way.

This almost seems like an impossible task for Amtrak and the Capitol Corridor folks: they are trying to run a frequent, scheduled, reliable service, but they have to do that in an environment that is completely unstructured (it appears), unscheduled, unmaintained and thus unreliable.

I also wonder if Amtrak and/or the State of California receives some kind of compensation (at the very least refunds of track usage fees, better would be some kind of money to reimburse for damages) in cases like this? I mean there must be a contract in place that has certain incentives for Union Pacific not to let this happen … I’d be very curious to see this contract …

On November 5, 2006 (a Sunday), Capitol Corridor trains #727 (southbound Oakland - San Jose) and #734 (northbound, San Jose - Oakland) will be making exceptional stops at Niles. This has been arranged by the Train Riders Association of California with the help of Capitol Corridor, Amtrak and Union Pacific. The reason for the stop is a special excursion organized by the group following their Annual Meeting and Conference at Oakland on November 4. In between the trains, the Niles Canyon Railway will operate a train up to Sunol and back. Both the extra Capitol Corridor stop and the Niles Canyon Railway trains are available to the public.

Approximate schedules:
- Arrival of train #727 at Niles: 10:00am
- Departure of Niles Canyon Railway excursion: 11:25am
- Departure of train #734 at Niles: 1:25pm

Riding the Capitol Corridor trains requires a ticket to/from Fremont, the next scheduled regular station on the route. The fares for the Niles Canyon exursion is $10.

If this extra stop is successful and enough people participate in the event, this may eventually lead to future additional stops at Niles.

I was reminded of this offer by today’s CC Rail Mail - Capitol Corridor offers a free Transit Transfer program, where if you ride a Capitol Corridor train, you can ask the conductor for a Transit Transfer, which is then valid with any one of a number of connecting Transit Agencies.

My first thought when reading this was - gee, why do I always keep forgetting about this when I actually ride the Capitol Corridor? On the train, I’ve never heard anyone mention this or seen it advertised anywhere (the only thing that you see on the train is the discounted BART tickets that they sell). Or even heard anyone ask a conductor to get one of these.

My second thought then was - ok, good idea, but bad execution! Why do I even have to ask for a Transfer in the first place? Why can’t I simply show my Amtrak Ticket stub to the driver or fare inspector to ride connecting transit?

Free connections to local transit services

While on board, ask the conductor for a free Transit Transfer. The conductor will give you a two-part, validated transfer, which should be punched for the next day - this allows you to travel to a destination, stay the night if needed and use the second transfer the following day.

[ ::: The Capitol Corridor: Transit Transfers ::: ]