The
Coast Starlight is a
passenger train route operated by
Amtrak on the
West Coast of the United States. It runs from
King Street Station in
Seattle,
Washington, to
Union Station in
Los Angeles,
California.
The train's name was inspired by the trains of the
Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) that operated in
California, many along the same route as the current
Coast Starlight. SP's passenger trains in this region carried the name
Daylight in some form (
e.g. Morning Daylight and
Noon Daylight).
Major stops along the route are
Portland and
Eugene in
Oregon and
Sacramento,
Emeryville (for
San Francisco),
Oakland,
San Jose,
Santa Barbara, and
Oxnard in
California.
Equipment
Menu cover
The train uses Amtrak's double-decker
Superliner I & II equipment, including a Sightseer Lounge car that has floor-to-ceiling windows to watch the passing scenery. The
Coast Starlight is the only train on the Amtrak system
intended to feature a first-class Pacific Parlour lounge car (formerly
Santa Fe Hi-Level Sky Lounge cars built in 1956) for sleeping-car passengers, offering complimentary beverages, a library and games, a formerly free afternoon wine tasting, and a movie theater in the lower level. However, due to ongoing maintenance issues, this car is sometimes absent. For children, play equipment and other distractions are provided in the Arcade Room (formerly Kiddie Car). Baggage is placed in a
Heritage Baggage Car.
Locomotives used on the Coast Starlight are primarily Amtrak's main locomotives, the
GE P42DC AMD-103 Genesis series. Secondary locomotives are
GE P32-8 (Dash 8) Locomotives. In the past,
EMD F40PH,
SDP40F,
FP7, and leased
Southern Pacific SDP45 locomotives have been used since 1971.
In rare cases,
EMD F59PHI locomotives from the Amtrak
Surfliner and
Cascades routes and
Amtrak California F59PHI, or in rarer cases
Caltrain EMD F40PH and
MPI MP36PH-3C locomotives are used on the Coast Starlight, either as substitutes or while being transported to or from repair jobs.
Route
- UP Brooklyn Subdivision
[, effective February 1, 2000 (includes a list of subdivisions from the first post-merger timetable in 1998)] (ex-SP), Portland to Oakridge
History
Before the formation of Amtrak, no single passenger train ran the length of the West Coast. The
Southern Pacific Railroad operated the
Coast Daylight between
Los Angeles and
San Francisco and the
Cascade between
Oakland and
Portland. The Southern Pacific also ran several overnight trains between Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay area - the all-sleeping car
Lark on the coast route and the mixed coach and Pullman
Owl on the San Joaquin Valley line. Service from Portland north to
Seattle was provided by the Union Pacific,
Northern Pacific Railroad or
Great Northern Railway. After the 1970 merger of the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific into the
Burlington Northern Railroad, service was provided by the Burlington Northern. Service south from Los Angeles to
San Diego was by the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
With the start of Amtrak operations on
May 1,
1971, a single route was formed between Los Angeles and Seattle—and for a few months between San Diego and Seattle
. The unnamed train (assigned numbers 11 southbound and 12 northbound) ran three times a week. Supplementing it on the other four days (northbound Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday and southbound Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) was another unnamed train between Los Angeles and Oakland (assigned 98 northbound and 99 southbound). Additional service was also provided between San Diego and Los Angeles and between Portland and Seattle (those became the
San Diegan and
Mount Rainier/
Puget Sound on
November 14). In the
November 14,
1971 timetable, the LA-Oakland train received the
Coast Daylight name that the SP had used for its LA-San Francisco train, and was extended to San Diego and assigned numbers 12 and 13. The San Diego-Seattle train received the new name
Coast Starlight and became trains 11 and 14. A few years later, the
Coast Daylight was merged into the
Coast Starlight, which was expanded to run every day. The
Coast Starlight has since been truncated to Los Angeles, though frequent
Pacific Surfliner service continues south. For a couple of years in the mid-nineties, the Coast Starlight sent 2 through coach cars from Los Angeles to San Diego as the last
Pacific Surfliner train of the evening (#511). The coaches were then coupled onto the first morning train back to Los Angeles where they were re-coupled to the remainder of the Coast Starlight for the journey to Seattle. This was later discontinued because of the timekeeping unreliability of train #11. Instead, if train #11 arrives into Los Angeles prior to the final
Surfliner departure, through passengers to Orange County and San Diego will take the connecting
Surfliner train, otherwise passengers will be provided motor coach transportation to destinations south of Los Angeles (the motor coach option typically occurs with greater frequency than the train).
Until
April 25,
1982 the
Coast Starlight used
Southern Pacific Railroad's "West Valley Line" between
Tehama and
Davis, California with a stop in
Orland, bypassing
Sacramento to the west. At that time it was rerouted to the line between Tehama and
Roseville, east of Sacramento via Chico. In southern California, the
Starlight had a stop in
Glendale. This was later replaced with the current stop in Van Nuys which, unlike Glendale, has Amtrak staff for checking baggage.
On
January 19,
2008, Amtrak suspended all service on the
Coast Starlight because of mudslides in the
Chemult, Oregon area. On
February 6,
2008, Amtrak restored rail service between
Los Angeles and
Sacramento, then filled the service gap between Sacramento and
Seattle with
Thruway Motorcoach service starting
February 29.
As Of April 15, 2008, Amtrak restored much of the
Coast Starlight service, with a temporary Thruway Motorcoach line running between
Eugene and
Klamath Falls. Because of the significantly shorter route, the
Starlight north of Eugene temporarily operated without sleeper and diner services, with only coach class available to passengers, but checked baggage service was still available.
[ As of May 7, 2008, full service between Seattle and Los Angeles through Oregon was restored.]
In recent years, the train has gained the nickname "Coast Starlate" because of its abysmal on-time record. From October 2005 through August 2006 the train delivered its passengers on-time only 2% of the time, with trains consistently running 5 to 11 hours behind schedule. This performance is likely a factor in the 26% drop in ridership between 1999 and 2005. Union Pacific Railroad (UP), who handles traffic on the route, and local rail groups dispute the causes of the of poor performance. Rail groups blame Union Pacific for giving priority to freight traffic, while UP cites ongoing track repairs, among other issues. Recently, Union Pacific has been giving Amtrak priority on its tracks. According to Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham, the "Coast Starlight" was on-schedule 86% of the time in May 2008. In comparison, the Department of Transportation reports that national airlines ran on schedule 74% of the time from April 2007 to April 2008.
During early summer 2008, the Coast Starlight was relaunched with new amenities and refurbished equipment. As of July 2008, the Pacific Parlour cars have been refurbished and are back in service as part of the relaunch. This has been much anticipated due to the vast success from Amtrak re-launching the Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle) and Empire Builder-Portland (Chicago-Portland). Between FY2008 and FY2009, ridership on the Coast Starlight has jumped 15% from 353,657 passengers to 406,398 passengers.
