Coast Line | |
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Overview | |
Owner |
|
Locale | |
Termini | |
Stations | 68 |
Service | |
Type | Commuter, freight and inter-city rail |
Operator(s) | |
History | |
Opened | 1871 (first section) 1901 (final section) |
Technical | |
Track length | 470 mi (760 km) |
Number of tracks | 1-4 |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Electrification | Overhead line, 25 kV 60 Hz AC (San Francisco–San Jose, 2024) |
The Coast Line is a railroad line between Burbank, California [lower-alpha 1] and the San Francisco Bay Area, roughly along the Pacific Coast. It is the shortest rail route between Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Though not as busy as the Surf Line, the continuation of the Coast Line southbound to San Diego, it still sees freight movements and lots of passenger trains. The Pacific Surfliner , which runs from the San Diego Santa Fe Depot to San Luis Obispo via Union Station in Los Angeles, is the third busiest Amtrak route, and the busiest outside of the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C. and Boston.
The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad built the first segment of the line from San Francisco to San Jose between 1860 and 1864. The founders of the SF&SJ incorporated as the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was authorized by Congress in 1866 to connect the line from San Jose south to Needles, where it would meet the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad. SP had built to Tres Pinos by 1873, however they abandoned efforts to continue the line to Coalinga, instead choosing a route from Lathrop. [1] [2]
By 1871, SP had completed a line south from San Jose through Gilroy and Pajaro, arriving at Salinas in 1872 and Soledad in 1873. SP halted southward work at Soledad for thirteen years and started building north from Los Angeles in 1873, completing a line to Burbank. In 1886, SP had pushed south from Soledad to King City, Paso Robles, and Templeton; by 1887, the southern portion of the line had been extended through Newhall, Saugus, and Santa Paula to Santa Barbara. [2] [3]
By 1894, SP had extended the line south over the Cuesta Pass from Templeton to San Luis Obispo. [4] The work continued south to Guadalupe in 1895 and Surf in 1896. [2] The 80-mile (130 km) gap between Surf and Santa Barbara was closed with the last spike driven on December 28, 1900. [5]
The first version of the Coast Line, via Saugus and Santa Paula through the Santa Clara River Valley, was completed by the Southern Pacific Railroad on December 31, 1900. [6] [7]
The work between Ventura and Carpenteria eventually allowed the construction of the Rincon sea-level road for automobile traffic to travel this formerly impassible section of coastline.
Work on the Montalvo Cutoff, which crossed the Santa Clara River to serve the farmers in the Oxnard Plain and was extended to Santa Susana in Simi Valley, began in 1898. [2] The Santa Susana Tunnel opened in 1904 connecting with the Chatsworth cutoff from Burbank [lower-alpha 2] and thereafter was the main line. [8] [9] Passenger and freight traffic declined dramatically at the Hueneme wharf in Ventura County as they shifted to the railroad. [10] A new straighter track was built between Chatsworth and Burbank to coincide with the new route, and the original line through the San Fernando Valley was designated as the Burbank branch. [11] In 1907, the Bayshore Cutoff opened from San Bruno [lower-alpha 3] to San Francisco, relegating the original main line through the Bernal Cut to branch status. In 1935 the new line around downtown San Jose opened [lower-alpha 4] and thereafter was the main line. [12]
In the golden era of passenger service, SP trains on the San Francisco leg of this route ran from the Third and Townsend Depot in San Francisco to the Union Station in Los Angeles. The Oakland–Los Angeles trains originated from the 16th Street Station in Oakland.
The line has several subdivisions. [13] Ownership is currently split into three segments:
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Coast Subdivision | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board purchased the line on the San Francisco Peninsula north of Tamien in 1991, and the line north of Santa Clara is primarily used by passenger services. In 1992, Southern Pacific granted the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission an option to purchase the entire Coast Line for passenger train operations at 110 mi/h (180 km/h). Upgrades to signals and tracks to enable higher-speed operations were estimated to cost $360 million at the time. [14] In the case of both purchases, SP retained freight trackage rights along those lines which continue to be held by the company's successor, Union Pacific.
Union Pacific freight trains run on the route, although the Fresno Subdivision through the San Joaquin Valley is the preferred north–south California route due to having easier grades and curves. [15] The freight trains are typically local freights, empty bare-table and autorack trains. The line sees varying freight activity across its length. As of 2003 [update] , the line between Niles and San Jose saw four freight trains per day, the segment between San Jose and Watsonville saw 13 freight trains per day, between Watsonville and San Luis Obispo saw 7, San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara saw 9, and 16 south of Santa Barbara to Los Angeles. [16]
The Coast Line is used by commuter, regional, and inter-city passenger trains:
The southern part of the Coast Line is the northern portion of the 351-mile-long (565 km) LOSSAN Rail Corridor between San Luis Obispo and San Diego. Local agencies along with the host railroads formed the Los Angeles–San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency (LOSSAN) in 1989 to work together on upgrading the route. [17] Millions in enhancements to improve the reliability and safety of the railroad corridor have been proposed by Caltrans and federal railroad officials. Ventura County would get rail curve realignments near Seacliff, the Santa Clara River and Montalvo in the near term for an estimated $300 million. Future rail service could include a Ventura–Santa Barbara commuter train. [18] Long-range plans also including commuter service between Ventura and Santa Clarita along the original route through the Santa Clara River Valley. The Ventura County Transportation Commission purchased the Santa Paula Branch Line within Ventura County from Southern Pacific. While a portion of the line was abandoned after being washed out in Los Angeles County, the Great Park development will provide for a route through the community of Valencia. [19]
The Central Coast is an area of California, roughly spanning the coastal region between Point Mugu and Monterey Bay. It lies northwest of Los Angeles and south of the San Francisco Bay Area, and includes the rugged, rural, and sparsely populated stretch of coastline known as Big Sur.
The Pacific Surfliner is a 350-mile (560 km) passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.
CalTrain was a short-lived commuter rail system in the Los Angeles area which operated between 1982–1983. It connected downtown Los Angeles's Union Station with Oxnard in Ventura County, using the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. It was the first local rail service in Los Angeles since 1961 and was a forerunner of the modern Metrolink Ventura County Line. Service ended in the face of high costs, lower-than-expected ridership, a changing political climate, and staunch opposition from the Southern Pacific.
The Metrolink Ventura County Line is a commuter rail line serving Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County and the City of Los Angeles, in the Southern California system. The line is the successor of the short lived CalTrain commuter rail line.
The Coast Starlight is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on the West Coast of the United States between Seattle and Los Angeles via Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area. The train, which has operated continuously since Amtrak's formation in 1971, was the first to offer direct service between Seattle and Los Angeles. Its name is a combination of two prior Southern Pacific (SP) trains, the Coast Daylight and the Starlight.
Amtrak California is a brand name used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Rail for three state-supported Amtrak regional rail routes in California – the Capitol Corridor, the Pacific Surfliner, and the San Joaquins – and their associated connecting network of Amtrak Thruway transportation services.
The Coast Daylight, originally known as the Daylight Limited, was a passenger train on the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, via SP's Coast Line. It was advertised as the "most beautiful passenger train in the world," carrying a particular red, orange, and black color scheme. The train operated from 1937 until 1974, being retained by Amtrak in 1971. Amtrak merged it with the Coast Starlight in 1974.
The Surf Line is a railroad line that runs from San Diego to Orange County along California's Pacific Coast. It was so named because much of the line is near the Pacific Ocean, within less than 100 feet (30 m) in some places.
San Jose Diridon station is the central passenger rail depot for San Jose, California. It also serves as a major intermodal transit center for Santa Clara County and Silicon Valley. The station is named after former Santa Clara County Supervisor Rod Diridon Sr.
The South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) was a 3 ft narrow gauge steam railroad running between Santa Cruz, California, and Alameda, with a ferry connection in Alameda to San Francisco. The railroad was created as the Santa Clara Valley Railroad, founded by local strawberry growers as a way to get their crops to market in San Francisco and provide an alternative to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1876, James Graham Fair, a Comstock Lode silver baron, bought the line and extended it into the Santa Cruz Mountains to capture the significant lumber traffic coming out of the redwood forests. The narrow-gauge line was originally laid with 52-pound-per-yard (26 kg/m) rail on 8-foot (2.44 m) redwood ties; and was later acquired by the Southern Pacific and converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge.
The Pacific Coast Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railway on the Central Coast of California. The original 10-mile (16 km) link from San Luis Obispo to Avila Beach and Port Harford was later built southward to Santa Maria and Los Olivos, with branches to Sisquoc and Guadalupe.
Van Nuys station is an Amtrak and Metrolink train station in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, close to the nighborhood of Panorama City. Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, Amtrak's Coast Starlight from Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington, and Metrolink's Ventura County Line from Los Angeles Union Station to East Ventura stop here.
The Oxnard Transit Center is an intermodal transit center in downtown Oxnard, California. It is served by Amtrak Coast Starlight and Pacific Surfliner intercity service plus Metrolink Ventura County Line commuter service.
San Luis Obispo station is an Amtrak intercity rail station in the city of San Luis Obispo, California, United States. It has one side platform and one island platform serving the two tracks of the Coast Line.
The Santa Susana Tunnel is a railroad tunnel that connects the Simi and San Fernando valleys in Southern California. The tunnel is credited with saving considerable time and distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The tunnel is 7,369 feet (2,246 m) long and runs through the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains. The tunnel is located beneath the Santa Susana Pass.
The history of the Southern Pacific ("SP") stretched from 1865 to 1998.
Lang Southern Pacific Station is a former Southern Pacific railway station located in Soledad Canyon near the eastern end of Santa Clarita, California. On September 5, 1876, the first railway to Los Angeles was completed at this site. The Lang Southern Pacific Station was designated a California Historic Landmark on May 22, 1957.
The Santa Paula Branch Line is a railway corridor in Ventura County, California. It connects Saugus and Santa Paula through the Santa Clara River Valley, though the route east of Piru is out of service. It opened for traffic by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1887. Since 1995 the line has been owned by the Ventura County Transportation Commission.
Dreamstar Lines is a privately-owned passenger railroad company based in Newport Beach, CA. Dreamstar is planning a nightly inter-city service between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The train would share the same routes as Amtrak, Metrolink, and Caltrain. Service is anticipated to launch as early as 2025, succeeding the Lark that ended in 1968.