San Joaquin (Amtrak)
| San Joaquin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 A San Joaquin at Bakersfield |
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| Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Service type | Inter-city rail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Locale | California | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Predecessor | San Joaquin Daylight | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| First service | March 5, 1974 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Current operator(s) | Amtrak | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Average ridership | 2,679 daily 977,834 total (FY10)[1] |
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| Route | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Start | Bakersfield, California | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| End | Oakland, California Sacramento, California |
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| Distance travelled | 315 miles (507 km) (Oakland) 282 miles (454 km) (Sacramento) |
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| Train number(s) | 701, 702, 703, 704, 711, 712, 713, 714, 715, 716, 717, 718 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track owner(s) | UP and BNSF | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The San Joaquin (sometimes referred to as San Joaquins) is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in California's Central Valley. The train is operated twelve times each day between its southern terminus at Bakersfield and Stockton, where it branches with a destination/origin of either Oakland (four trains in each direction a day) or Sacramento (two trains in each direction a day). At Bakersfield, Thruway Motorcoach bus service connects to Los Angeles Union Station and points in Southern California, the High Desert and the Central Coast. The San Joaquin does not continue south of Bakersfield because the only line between Bakersfield and points south, via Tehachapi Pass, is one of the world's busiest single-track freight rail lines.[2]
The San Joaquin is Amtrak's fifth-busiest service and the railroad's third-busiest in California.[1] During fiscal year 2010, the service carried 977,834 passengers, a 5.2% increase from FY 2009's total of 929,172 passengers.[1] Total revenue during FY 2010 was US$31,341,146, a 12.7% increase from a total of US$27,816,923 in FY 2009.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Route
The San Joaquin originates at Bakersfield's Truxtun Avenue Station and operates northward on BNSF Railway's Mojave Subdivision within Bakersfield, the Bakersfield Subdivision from Bakersfield to Calwa (Fresno), then on the Stockton Subdivision from Calwa to Stockton.
At Stockton, the train travels on one of two routes depending on its final destination of either Oakland or Sacramento:
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- The Oakland segment continues west on the Stockton Subdivision to Port Chicago. At Port Chicago, the train crosses over to the Union Pacific Railroad's Tracy Subdivision to Martinez, continues on the Martinez Subdivision to Emeryville, and finally a short distance on the Niles Subdivision to Oakland's Jack London Square station.
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- Trains headed to the Sacramento Valley Rail Station diverge in Stockton and operate north to Sacramento on Union Pacific's Fresno Subdivision and on the Martinez Subdivision within Sacramento.
[edit] Rolling stock
The San Joaquin is equipped with Amtrak California-fleet (bi-level, high-capacity) passenger cars of several types: coach-baggage car, cafe (dining) car, coach car, cab car, and cab-baggage car. A cab car is a typical coach with an engineer's operating cab and headlights on one end, allowing the train to be operated in push-pull mode, which eliminates the need to turn the train at each end-point. A cab-baggage is similar, but with space dedicated on the car's lower level for checked-luggage storage.
Two types of locomotives are used on the San Joaquin. The EMD F59PHI, road numbers CDTX 2001-2015, and the GE P32-8WH (Dash 8), road numbers CDTX 2051-2052. These locomotives are owned by the California Department of Transportation and carry its CDTX reporting marks. However, other locomotives can occasionally be seen on the San Joaquin, including Amtrak-owned Dash 8s and P42DCs. The Amtrak California locomotives and cars livery is unique to California, so they are easily recognizable.
A typical San Joaquin configuration is a locomotive and four cars:
- Locomotive (end pointed towards Oakland/Sacramento)
- Coach-Baggage Car
- Coach Car
- Cafe Car
- Cab Car (end pointed towards Bakersfield)
or
- Locomotive (end pointed towards Oakland/Sacramento)
- Coach Car
- Coach Car
- Cafe Car
- Cab-Baggage Car (end pointed towards Bakersfield)
During some holiday seasons additional coaches may be added, resulting in five- or six-car trains.
[edit] History
The San Joaquin has existed since 1974. Its service has increased from one round trip per day to four round trips to Oakland, plus two round trips to Sacramento.
The San Joaquin operates over rail lines that once hosted several competing trains each day. The two primary trains originating in the Central Valley were the Golden Gate, originally operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (predecessor to BNSF), and the San Joaquin Daylight operated by Southern Pacific Railroad (later acquired by Union Pacific).
In April 1965, as car travel increased and ridership on passenger trains began their precipitous decline, the Santa Fe Railway received permission from the Interstate Commerce Commission to severely curtail Golden Gate operations, with service finally abandoned three years later. The San Joaquin Daylight was discontinued with the start-up of Amtrak in May 1971.
Other passenger trains that previously ran through the Central Valley included Southern Pacific's Owl and Santa Fe's San Francisco Chief and Valley Flyer.
[edit] Proposed high-speed rail
Studies are underway for the California High-Speed Rail system between Northern and Southern California, and a US$9 billion ballot initiative was approved by the voters November 2008. In many places the route will run through the San Joaquin Valley along the same alignment as the San Joaquins. The first section that has been selected for construction is between Fresno and Bakersfield.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Amtrak (11 October 2010). "Amtrak Sets New Ridership Record, Thanks Passengers For Taking the Train". Press release. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?blobcol=urldata&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobkey=id&blobwhere=1249216336898&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment;filename=Amtrak_ATK-10-134_AmtrakRidershipRecordFY10.pdf. Retrieved 16 November 2010.
- ^ Solomon, Brian (1999). Southern Pacific Railroad. Osceola: MBI Publishing Company. p. 20. ISBN 0760306141. http://books.google.com/books?id=dUluUkIywHkC.
