Nice video. I've taken the Capital Corridor many times between Sacramento and Emeryville in the East Bay which is has a bus connection to San Francisco. One thing to note is that California cars differ for Amtrak passenger cars in that each car is named for a different location in California. Cars are named for either a Bay, Mountain, Valley or River depending on what type of car it is such as coaches are named after rivers and café cars after valleys, etc.
Funny how they put the fin on the back of the Charger for aerodynamics with the taller passenger cars, and then when it’s pushing from the back, the front of the train is just a box. 😂
@@andrewwoodgate3769 Frankly this is state subsidized regional train service, you don't leave northern California's Bay Area urban metro... Far too many stops to actually get to any high top speed...
I rode this train this week from Oakland and Sacramento and back, Food is being served in the Cafe car. The ride between Richmond and Martinez is scenic along San Francisco Bay.
Thank you! We use the Cap Corridor to go Sacramento to Oakland for Athletics baseball. You showed the stadium but didn’t mention it. The Raiders played there as well. Hope you continue your Cap Corridor trip to Sacramento. So much railroad history here.
He should have taken the Capitol Corridor train all the way to Sacramento to see the San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait, the Carquinez Strait railroad bridge, the Suisun Bay, the Sacramento Valley, the old Southern Pacific Sacramento railyard, the Sacramento train station (another nice station), and the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.
I used to ride this route pretty frequently between San Jose and Sacramento when I lived in Santa Cruz. Favorite parts include the C&H sugar factory in Crockett all lit up at night, that Niles Junction U-turn, how close the tracks are to the water at some points, and crossing the Sacramento River with views of the Tower Bridge and Delta King.
Off topic, but whatever happened to that train project in Santa Cruz/ Did they really kill it? I can't tell if it's completely dead or if there is any chance of reviving it in the future. Thank you!
Fantastic review as always! California has always done it right! Modern, comfortable equipment (since the 1990’s!). They’ve invested in their tracks for capacity and smooth ride. And I even liked the friendliness of the announcements, both on board the train at the stations. We are still waiting for all these things in the Midwest, sadly…
California taxes much more and screwed up high speed rail even with billions of federal money. You give them too much credit. The speed average under 40 miles per hour - hardly impressive
Only because California threw 3 or 4 times as much money as the Midwest states did. The Michigan services have higher speeds than the Capitol Corridor, and they are partaking in all the equipment orders that California is. Considering they did it on a much smaller budget, your praise is misplaced.
@@GintaPPE1000 Isn’t Amtrak paying for the Michigan upgrades? And California has a lot more service than every single Midwest lines, which has a maximum of i believe 6 round trips a day.
Your English has gotten so good bro. It’s a ways away, but as a Florida guy I can’t wait to see you review the Brightline when the Orlando to Miami track is finally complete next year.
If you're out in California, I recommend taking a trip on the San Joaquin route. Right now they use rebuilt Comet IBs purchased from NJ Transit, but they're gonna be replaced by Siemens Venture cars in the near future.
I hope your video gets more people to ride the train. That train was so empty. I live in the East Bay and have gone in and out of OKJ many times, it was so fun to see you in my hometown of Oakland and talking so well of it. Bravo!! Since I've seen you travel the rails all over the world it was fun to see you in my bit of the world. Would have been nice to see the whole trip from San Jose to Sacramento though.
The reason the cab car gave off Surfliner vibes was because Amtrak California uses two types of stock. The original California Car is used for most of the Capitol Corridor equipment, but they later created the Surfliner car revision which is (shockingly) used on the Surfliner trains. The Surfliner cars are also used on Capitol Corridor and San Joaquins trains. Your cab car for the day was one of those Surfliner cars while the rest of your train ran the older California Cars.
Use to take this the Capitol Corridor daily between Emeryville and Santa Clara during Silicon Valley's gold rush. I loved Tiki and Hawaiian shirt Fridays where the bar was open and the cars were loaded with commuters. Sorry to hear they still have not fixed all the doors... Thanks for the memories Tres merci! BTW I usually load the family and go from Emeryville to Sacramento on the Capitol Corridor. So nice to enjoy while everyone else is stuck on Interstate 80. It would be nice for you to go to Sacramento and pay a visit to the the Sacramento Old Railroad Museum. A lot of western railroad history there! and it is a very short walk from the Sacramento station. I see you riding these bullet trains all over the world, and I envy you... While we here in California are still failing miserably trying to get high speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is decades away. Morocco has a bullet train, Panama gets a new Metro, and yet we are still waiting over here...
The cab car on your train is indeed a Surfliner coach. The last 12 cars of that order have always been intermingled with the original California Cars as they were there to expand capacity. There are a few ways to tell the two apart: 1. The numbers. Surfliners are in the 6000 series (cab cars are 6900 series), and California Cars are in the 8000s (cab cars are 8300 series). 2. Fluting. The fluting (grooved pattern) on the sides of the Surfliner cars only extends partially below the upper row of windows. For California Cars, the fluting goes all the way from the upper windows to the tops of the doors. 3. Equipment. Only California Cars have that digital announcement board at 4:38. For cab cars only, there are some more equipment differences. On Surfliners, the horn is placed low, right above the snowplow, while California Cars have their horns mounted on the roof. California cab cars also have an orange flasher light on the roof that the Surfliner lacks, and two-piece marker light cutouts. On the Surfliner, the cutout basically fits the marker light (the red light between the numberboard and driver's cab window), but on California Cars, there is a blanked-out "dummy" headlight inboard of the markers - these used to be functional, but were removed because they did not meet FRA code.
The cab car on that train is really similar to a Surfliner car… because it is one. There were a few Surfliner coaches painted in the Amtrak California paint scheme and used on Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains, though I believe they’ve mostly been sent south to serve Surfliner trains.
California double decker cars are called California cars, and blue and white Pacific Surfliners. Neither should be confused for Amtrak Superliners. Biggest difference is the California and Surfliner cars have 2 sets of doors on the lower level, while Superliners have only one door each side. California has leased a number of Superliners ongoing to supplement its own cars, in exchange for repairing them after derailment damages.
These cars are now more than 20 years in age. Considering the age of most of Amtrak's rolling stock, Amtrak is doing a good job just keeping these cars running. They look dated because they are dated...
Yes, the Capital Corridor is slower than the Surfliner. The Surfliner has a legacy ATS system passed down from the days of ATSF that allows passenger trains to run at 90 mph between LA and SD.
The weird thing about the Amtrak California cars is that they will always get mixed up with Surfliner Cars, which yes are a little different, you can see in several videos that California Cars will be mixed in to Surfliner consists and also some Surfliner Cars have been painted for Amtrak California as well
If I'm not mistaken, the Surfliner cars in southern California that are owned by Caltrans have the square-looking Capitol Corridor seats. Surfliners owned by Amtrak have seats that are rounder in appearance.
There is a great Railroad museum in Sacramento and you can take the Capital Corridor right to it. There is a great restaurant and hotel in an old paddlewheel docked there , the Delta King, and Sacramento Old Town that would make for a fascinating trip and video content for you to record as well.
16:00 in Sacramento we have something similar, but it’s for the light rail, not the Amtrak. It’s on the gold line between 23rd street and 29th street stations.
Love the video! Capitol corridor was my go to when I worked in Sacramento. Pro-tip: be careful when using the bathroom faucets. They go from cold to hot pretty quick.
Great report. I've been binging on train videos, after stumbling on them from researching plane trips. I live line of sight of the Fremont train station for over twenty years and never seriously considered taking a trip. I like driving, but after research, from that Capitol Corridor route, it of course goes to Sacramento, but right after the Oakland stop is Emeryville, and that's the terminus of the California Zephyr from Chicago. So probably this winter I'll take the train from Fremont, to Emeryville to Reno, to avoid snowy road conditions driving to Reno. So timewise it would only be a few hours slower than driving. That Capitol Corridor train interior look nice, bravo Amtrak. I also took a BART trip, to the airport, the first time I used BART in twenty years and the trains are disgusting. It's like a third world country. They are the exact same trains from twenty years ago, same seats, very beat up and repaired with duct tape. That's a youtube video there.
Unfortunately, sounds like you got one of the old cars. They are getting rid of them so maintenance is a low priority. BART's new trains are awesome! Truly modern and state of the art on a worldwide scale, not just by US standards! Probably the best mass transit train in the US right now. Check them out some time.
I used to commute on the Cap Corridor once a week. You sat on the correct side for that ride but I'm surprised you missed the ghost town in the marshes.
Thank you for this video!! Ive been waiting for one of you Rail reviewers to do amtrak california.. Im a huge fan and i live in sacramento!! Awesome video!! Got to love that street running in Jack London Square
Aha, you put Go Chiefs in very small print @ 8:26 but we saw it! Booo! GO NINERS! Seriously, great report. You’ve inspired me to try out the Capitol Corridor one of these weekends :)
You should do LA-San Luis Obisbo on surfliner very different experience. Also, you should do metro link, LA commuter service with lines from east ventura to the desert and Orange County
I moved to San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s, have been calling this place home for 35+ years, but I took train rides (real train, not BART) only twice, both CalTrain commuter trains on the peninsula, total travel distance less then 40 miles. Now, a Frenchman rode train through my hometown twice, and published such nice video! Wow! Specifically, the Fremont train station at Thornton Ave (9:18) is 6 miles from my house, and Niles Junction (9:38) is only 4 miles from my house. However, I never even set my foot on any train in or thru my hometown. Well, all I can say is my train experience in France is much much more than my train experience in the Bay Area. I have been on London to Paris EuroStar twice, and I have crossed the entire country of France (almost) on TGV from Avignon to Paris.
You need to try our new Amtrak California trains! You're paying for them too! They Amtrak California is not Federal Amtrak, it's a joint venture with Caltrans. They really do a good job! Much better than regular Amtrak service. You can try taking the San Joaquins to Yosemite if you're in for a train adventure. You can buy a compound ticket that includes a connecting bus all the way into the Yosemite Valley. We did that a while ago and it was awesome. Plus they should have the new Brightline-style Siemens trains on the San Joaquins soon! I've taken trains all over the world. I assure you that Amtrak California services are world-class. We don't give them all that much of our tax money, but they still manage to deliver fantastic service for the price!
Yikes! San Jose to Oakland on the train. A true urban experience much of the way! It’s not a route most of us think of, since the Capitol trains popularly serve the Sacramento-SF route segment. Of course, the route also serves the 49ers stadium in nearby Santa Clara so gets heavy ridership those days. Of course I’ve never ridden the Oakland-San Jose segment, so maybe I should just keep quiet. ;-)
Just a few things to clarify… * CalTrans owns or leases almost all of the equipment they run on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin. On rare occasions you’ll see an Amtrak car or locomotive thrown in, but it’s not common. Especially since the pandemic began. * The original order of California cars (California I) were ordered in the late 1980s and delivered in the early 1990s (between 1991-1993 I believe). The Alstom refurbishment about ten years ago was done between 15 and 20 years into their service life. These cars are exclusively used on the NorCal routes (Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin), and have rarely been seen in SoCal (Most recent was for the two weeks following the Montecito mudslide, when train service and ferries were the only way to access Santa Barbara. California sent a number of extra cars and locomotives south to expand the Pacific Surfliner trains, which were seeing crush loads of 800-1,000 people getting into and out of Santa Barbara). *The second order of California Cars (California II, or Surfliner) was placed in the late 1990s and delivered between 2000 and 2002. About half of these cars are owned by Amtrak, the other half by California. There are a handful of California-owned Surfliner cars down south, but most of the Cali-owned ones are actually mixed in with the California I cars up north. All of the Amtrak-owned cars are used on the Surfliners. The plan as I understand it is for California to transfer down all of the Cali II “Surfliner” cars to SoCal once the new Siemens Venture trainsets are all delivered and in service on the San Joaquin route. This will greatly expand capacity on all three routes. *CalTrans HATES reclining seatbacks. They prefer seat designs where the bottom cushion slides forward to recline, rather than the seatback dropping back. When they refurbished their Cali II cars they replaced the original reclining seats with the seats with the red handles you don’t like. The seats are not particularly well liked. CalTrans also gave Amtrak money and asked them to do the same to the Amtrak-owned cars, but Amtrak refused to make that change, leading to a huge dispute between CalTrans and Amtrak shortly before the pandemic. To my knowledge it’s still unresolved. *The bouncy doors have always been a problem. Worst is when they bounce so hard that they break the “door closed” circuit, causing the engine to stop producing power. It hasn’t been resolved after 30 years.
Just look at those beautiful Chargers! Anyhow, the cab-car is an Alstom product (Surfliner) unlike the other three M-K/Amerail cars. I know Wikipedia says the California Cars were rebuilt by Alstom at Mare Island but I've been told they were cycled through the Siemens facility at French Road.
One way to easily tell the difference is they moved the K5LA horn from the roof on MK cab cars to just above the coupler but below the diaphragm and recessed on the Alstom cab cars. It makes it much less noisy for the engineer, and places the horns closer to the level of automobile drivers' ears.
Looking forward to railfanning out there one day when they have the station completely built out with all the services - Amtrak Cal, Caltrain, BART, etc
Pretty much all of our major rail lines are undergoing overhauls right now. In a way, the longer you wait to visit the more cool modern rail tech you'll see. Caltrain is moving to electric Stadler Kiss trains. BART is switching its entire fleet for brand new trains which are kind of awesome. They're also extending to San Jose and Santa Clara. The San Joaquins is getting Venture coaches to complete its "Brightline set" of Siemens Chargers + Venture car equipment. Unfortunately, if you wait for too long you'll miss out on a lot of quirky legacy equipment. For the next couple of years you'll be able to see three or even four generations of different Bay Area trains running on the same lines at the same time. But this period won't last forever. BART in particular looks like it's replacing its fleet with some enthusiasm. And the San Joaquins will start switching to Ventures any day now. I hope you have a great time when you visit!
The station is very beautiful. Being a museum buff I would have loved looking and reading all of the history in the exhibition. Taking a long train ride to somewhere I have never been to has been on my bucket list for a long time. Hope one day I can do just that. Love every one of your videos.
If you like old stations, go see the old SP 16th and Wood Oakland station that closed after the Loma Prieta earthquake! It has been largely stabilized seismically, otherwise it like a slice of history preserved in a time warp. Some group is trying too use it to rent out for events as an event space.
There is a depot with a witches hat in Abilene, Texas that never sees a passenger train... There are many old small depots just as beautiful in their own ways as a larger city station...
It looks like the bench seats (Compin?) are the same as on (some versions of) TGV Atlantique, ÖBB Bmpz (some of them with different headrests: The version in the "modular coaches" is the one I prefer), NS ICRm and ICMm, ex-BLS EW IV. They have nicely large tables, but can't be reclined. So this is indeed quite European, a basic seat type that has been used in France, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
When did you make this? You forgot to add VTA light rail services @ San Jose Diridon. I'm pretty sure it was already mentioned, but Amtrak CALIFORNIA received a handful of the Surfliner cars to Supplement the Amtrak California fleet. The smaller set of ribs on the exterior of the car, the different seating inside the car, and downstairs Cafe are what makes the difference. Oh and the folding tables.
What a great little trip - thanks for sharing it. I totally agree on the cafe car - absolutely fabulous with all the different types of seats....what a shame it was closed.
Great report as usual, Thibault. You love our trains and we love you. Hope you can come back at some point. btw, on your report last week you weren't wearing a hat and it looked like you had been in a very windy place! You are a unique guy, free to be yourself and that is one reason you are well liked and popular. Keep the videos coming.
What's very interesting about CalTrain regarding CalTrans, is that CalTrain was originally operated by CalTrans starting in 1985 and into the early 1990's before the current operator took over. If you search for "CalTrain 1980's" you can see the old paint scheme with the large CalTrans logo on the side of the equipment
Great video! In the future, if you ever want to be able to differentiate the California Cars from the Surfliner Cars, the California Cars are numbered in the 8000s, while the Surfliner cars (including the cab car in this video) are numbered in the 6000s. According to Wikipedia, there are currently 12 Surfliner Cars being used to supplement the 66 existing California Cars.
If you want some really nice views, I recommend taking the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in the fall. The leaves are all changing and a lot of the route runs along a river that cuts through the Appalachian mountains. It also runs on the world famous horseshoe curve bend!
That cab/coach car looks as if it was never refurbished. The seats looks much closer to the original California Car seats. The newer seats look good though!
Super coool video! You just came up in my stream. I am from London, live in Canada 🇨🇦 and watch Northern Eastern North Amharic’s stuff. This was a sunny surprise! Merçi 😊
Came here to comment on that. Drawbridge is neat and has an interesting history! A real old-west ghost town right in the middle of the bay area! He commented on the salt marsh but didn't show the part with Drawbridge.
very similar run on bart is a lot cheaper. this route is mostly used to get to Sac from the bay not surprised to see lots of chargers, F40PH are getting old.
Great tripreport! Just found out your channel. I’d love to see a video of you trying the dutch NS ICM(m) or “koploper”!:) It runs every half hour between Rotterdam Centraal via Utrecht or Den Haag (The Hague) via Schiphol Airport to Groningen (beautiful town in the north of the Netherlands). Groningen has won Several awards about having the most beautiful station of the Netherlands. Id love to see a review of this trip and of the station of Groningen. Also from Groningen arriva runs regional lines with stadler trains. The Arriva stadler WINK trains are very new (trains were taken into service this year!) and special because they can run on bio fuel and electricity. I’m really looking forward and hoping you’ll review this😁
I hope that you will ride and review the Piedmont in NC. The state sponsored route between Charlotte and Raleigh uses refurbished rolling stock that predates Amtrak. It’s a scenic trip, and one of the very few state sponsored routes in the Deep South.
Fortunately back during the nineteenth century the state of North Carolina had the foresight and wisdom to financially back the railroad track corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte this Amtrak regional train uses today. Norfolk Southern couldn't say NO when the state desired to invest into this Amtrak's regional train. The state had leverage, if the state couldn't use this line, NS couldn't use this line...
I take the Capitol Corridor from Martinez to Sacramento regularly, and I have never been to the cafe car... I had no idea it would be so different from the cafe cars on all the other Superliner-based trains.
Caltrans ordered some of the Surfliner coaches (the name of the series, not transfers from the stock) for themselves to use on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin around 2004 to increase capacity, so part of the fleet that the Surfliner uses, but not taken from their fleet.
If they have reached San Jose, the poles are nearly complete. Hanging the wiring is not nearly as complete. Where California is going to find new sources of electricity is another story with their history of rolling blackouts lately...
If you make the double-decker coach fit French Loading gauge then you can board them the problem will be Germany they use a 76cm 30 in high platform which is 45cm lower than Northeastern United States platform height which is 121 cm above track. Well done video and if you look at European high-speed trains using Northeastern United States high-level platforms during the same level but in Germany and France a step is used since there's a 45cm gap between between floor and a platform. Caltrain is going 121cm high platforms
the california car came before the surfliner so its actually the surflienr that stoel the california cars design also a few surfliners are on the route
For the part where you show the aerial map of the train route, speeding it up might or might not be desired, but it would be helpful if at the end you pause for a second or two to make it clear where it ends and give viewers a chance to see the entire route complete. I like the new Seat Check header! 3:40 I love how the engine you hear most is not the one in front of you 😂 16:09 I bet that's why these things never reach 125 MPH 😜
The seats on the Capitol Corridor/ San Joaquins cars seem very similar to those used on the older Danish (DSB) trains! Particularly the funny ones that go from Copenhagen to Hamburg 😅
I love how spatious these US trains look from the inside, even the double decker ones, compared to their European counterparts. The increased track clearance really allows for some more room onboard! However, I get the impression from most of these videos that passenger trains in the US run basically empty... It's sad to see such well equipped and clean trains serving no one...
Commuters tend to use the cheaper commuter trains. Even in California people tend to use their cars to travel intercity, to another city a hour or two away. Amtrak regional train fares are steep compared to commuter trains. Nationwide Amtrak's regional trains do fill up during rush hours. Like city buses, regional trains run nearly empty during non rush hours...
Capital quarter is basically a express route that have daily trips from San Jose all the way up to Sacramento and they go back-and-forth North and South and it puts a lot of miles on those cars to all those cars and those cars are maintenance heavy that's the reason why they're maintenance facility in Oakland California is so busy
(16:27) The train pushed backwards is as slippery as a Barn door, but the locomotive has a streamlined attachment to the wagons at the end of the roof. - Greetings, Heinz
Most cars on the Capitol Corridor train were built by Morrison-Knudsen, but all the Pacific Surfliner cars were built by Alstom. Some cars on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains are Alstom-built too. One difference between the Alstom and MK cars is that the luggage storage on the MK cars has a closing door, but on the Alstom cars, they don’t. Also, on the Alstom cars, whenever the conductor picks up the PA to make an announcement, a three-tone chime rings in the car right before he/she speaks into the mike. That chime is not present in the MK cars. I like the interiors of MK cars better, but I really like the sound of the chime. If only MK cars had that chime
Hi, love your trip reports. Quick comment regarding the fourth car on your train, it is a Surfliner car. The original California cars were used on all three of the state supported Amtrak routes and there was a plan to make a commuter version for caltrain as well, which obviously never developed. When the state of California ordered the California Cars 2.0 they made the decision to shift all of the existing fleet to northern California and that's why the new cars were branded the Surfliner cars. But something like 12 of the new cars were also sent to the northern California fleet and painted to match the existing California cars. They weren't repurposed from the Surfline, they were always intended to go there to expand that service. And as service has expanded they need more cars still which is why they've paid to refurbish damaged superliners and has placed for the 3.0 California cars that have now been switched out for single levels. I'm guessing all of the surfliner cars in 1.0 paint will move down to the Surfliner when the Venture cars take over on the San Joaquin. But that's just a guess.
@@ronclark9724 The Pacific Surfliner needs more equipment and this is matching equipment the same age that the state already owns. They wouldn’t scrap the cars. The only question is if they move equipment south or keep everything for the Capitals.
I am still not over Nippon Sharyo's failure to provide a proper bi-level replacement for the iconic California and Surfliner cars. As much as I love the Siemens Venture cars, it just doesn't scream California because it's not bi-level.
Isn’t it a tragedy? The new Siemens Venture cars are, of course, nicer than the current single level equipment (if they ever get placed into service!), but bilevels are what we really needed, for capacity, comfort, and ease of boarding/detraining.
Nippon Sharyo didn't fail, it was a regulatory fluke. They failed the 800k buff strength test shortly before the test was removed and no longer a requirement for new North American passenger equipment. If they had gone to FRA testing just a little later they'd have been approved
Lucky enough to ride a Surfliner cabcar, as 6964 (Point Arena) leading as Capitol Corridor with a nice horn (or K5LA - a type of horn most commonly used for passengers or sometimes freight)
Nice video. I've taken the Capital Corridor many times between Sacramento and Emeryville in the East Bay which is has a bus connection to San Francisco. One thing to note is that California cars differ for Amtrak passenger cars in that each car is named for a different location in California. Cars are named for either a Bay, Mountain, Valley or River depending on what type of car it is such as coaches are named after rivers and café cars after valleys, etc.
Funny how they put the fin on the back of the Charger for aerodynamics with the taller passenger cars, and then when it’s pushing from the back, the front of the train is just a box. 😂
Haha true, bye aerodynamics!
You take a win where you can.
If it takes 70 mins to travel 40 miles, I suppose aerodynamics aren't too much of an issue 😂
The fin is to deflect exhaust smoke from entering the end door of the lead car ;-)
@@andrewwoodgate3769 Frankly this is state subsidized regional train service, you don't leave northern California's Bay Area urban metro... Far too many stops to actually get to any high top speed...
I rode this train this week from Oakland and Sacramento and back, Food is being served in the Cafe car. The ride between Richmond and Martinez is scenic along San Francisco Bay.
The configuration of the Cafe car is wicked cool. It'd be awesome to see that spread across all of Amtraks routes.
Yeah I agree! I've never been out to CA but would love to have this design rolled out to the other cafés.
@@connecticutmultimodaltrans8226 Frankly I prefer the tables in the lounge/cafe cars...
Sitting on those chairs as a kid and letting the train swivel you around is a highlight
yeah i would be nice to do that
That’s what is disappointing about the Surfliner cafe cars down in SoCal. Mid in comparison
Thank you! We use the Cap Corridor to go Sacramento to Oakland for Athletics baseball. You showed the stadium but didn’t mention it. The Raiders played there as well. Hope you continue your Cap Corridor trip to Sacramento. So much railroad history here.
Anyone who does the Capitol Corridor should include the part between Berkeley and Vallejo, has great views of the bay
He should have taken the Capitol Corridor train all the way to Sacramento to see the San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait, the Carquinez Strait railroad bridge, the Suisun Bay, the Sacramento Valley, the old Southern Pacific Sacramento railyard, the Sacramento train station (another nice station), and the California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.
@@wmtrader he has traveled on the California Zephyr and Coast Starlight on this section anyway…
I used to ride this route pretty frequently between San Jose and Sacramento when I lived in Santa Cruz. Favorite parts include the C&H sugar factory in Crockett all lit up at night, that Niles Junction U-turn, how close the tracks are to the water at some points, and crossing the Sacramento River with views of the Tower Bridge and Delta King.
Off topic, but whatever happened to that train project in Santa Cruz/ Did they really kill it? I can't tell if it's completely dead or if there is any chance of reviving it in the future. Thank you!
Fantastic review as always! California has always done it right! Modern, comfortable equipment (since the 1990’s!). They’ve invested in their tracks for capacity and smooth ride. And I even liked the friendliness of the announcements, both on board the train at the stations.
We are still waiting for all these things in the Midwest, sadly…
Michigan trains are getting to 110 and Lincoln service trains are getting to 90…
California taxes much more and screwed up high speed rail even with billions of federal money. You give them too much credit. The speed average under 40 miles per hour - hardly impressive
You guys get passenger service?
Only because California threw 3 or 4 times as much money as the Midwest states did. The Michigan services have higher speeds than the Capitol Corridor, and they are partaking in all the equipment orders that California is. Considering they did it on a much smaller budget, your praise is misplaced.
@@GintaPPE1000 Isn’t Amtrak paying for the Michigan upgrades?
And California has a lot more service than every single Midwest lines, which has a maximum of i believe 6 round trips a day.
Your English has gotten so good bro. It’s a ways away, but as a Florida guy I can’t wait to see you review the Brightline when the Orlando to Miami track is finally complete next year.
If you're out in California, I recommend taking a trip on the San Joaquin route. Right now they use rebuilt Comet IBs purchased from NJ Transit, but they're gonna be replaced by Siemens Venture cars in the near future.
I hope your video gets more people to ride the train. That train was so empty. I live in the East Bay and have gone in and out of OKJ many times, it was so fun to see you in my hometown of Oakland and talking so well of it. Bravo!! Since I've seen you travel the rails all over the world it was fun to see you in my bit of the world. Would have been nice to see the whole trip from San Jose to Sacramento though.
Thanks for closeup of unique cafe cars that recall the classic streamline era.
The tracks run through a ghost town called Drawbridge, when passing through the salt ponds.
The reason the cab car gave off Surfliner vibes was because Amtrak California uses two types of stock. The original California Car is used for most of the Capitol Corridor equipment, but they later created the Surfliner car revision which is (shockingly) used on the Surfliner trains. The Surfliner cars are also used on Capitol Corridor and San Joaquins trains. Your cab car for the day was one of those Surfliner cars while the rest of your train ran the older California Cars.
Use to take this the Capitol Corridor daily between Emeryville and Santa Clara during Silicon Valley's gold rush. I loved Tiki and Hawaiian shirt Fridays where the bar was open and the cars were loaded with commuters. Sorry to hear they still have not fixed all the doors... Thanks for the memories Tres merci! BTW I usually load the family and go from Emeryville to Sacramento on the Capitol Corridor. So nice to enjoy while everyone else is stuck on Interstate 80. It would be nice for you to go to Sacramento and pay a visit to the the Sacramento Old Railroad Museum. A lot of western railroad history there! and it is a very short walk from the Sacramento station. I see you riding these bullet trains all over the world, and I envy you... While we here in California are still failing miserably trying to get high speed rail between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is decades away. Morocco has a bullet train, Panama gets a new Metro, and yet we are still waiting over here...
The cab car on your train is indeed a Surfliner coach. The last 12 cars of that order have always been intermingled with the original California Cars as they were there to expand capacity. There are a few ways to tell the two apart:
1. The numbers. Surfliners are in the 6000 series (cab cars are 6900 series), and California Cars are in the 8000s (cab cars are 8300 series).
2. Fluting. The fluting (grooved pattern) on the sides of the Surfliner cars only extends partially below the upper row of windows. For California Cars, the fluting goes all the way from the upper windows to the tops of the doors.
3. Equipment. Only California Cars have that digital announcement board at 4:38. For cab cars only, there are some more equipment differences. On Surfliners, the horn is placed low, right above the snowplow, while California Cars have their horns mounted on the roof. California cab cars also have an orange flasher light on the roof that the Surfliner lacks, and two-piece marker light cutouts. On the Surfliner, the cutout basically fits the marker light (the red light between the numberboard and driver's cab window), but on California Cars, there is a blanked-out "dummy" headlight inboard of the markers - these used to be functional, but were removed because they did not meet FRA code.
My station (Diridon!) My friend the conductor! My friend Elizabeth doing the announcement at Oakland! That was a fun one, Thibault.
The cab car on that train is really similar to a Surfliner car… because it is one. There were a few Surfliner coaches painted in the Amtrak California paint scheme and used on Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains, though I believe they’ve mostly been sent south to serve Surfliner trains.
California double decker cars are called California cars, and blue and white Pacific Surfliners. Neither should be confused for Amtrak Superliners. Biggest difference is the California and Surfliner cars have 2 sets of doors on the lower level, while Superliners have only one door each side.
California has leased a number of Superliners ongoing to supplement its own cars, in exchange for repairing them after derailment damages.
The seats really remind me of the ones in the Austrian ÖBB EC-coaches... The headrest is different, but the rest looks so similar!
Yes, that's exactly what I thought - Bmpz 29-91.0 open space cars of ÖBB have the same seats.
@@markoobid2005 and SNCF TGV A, NS ICRm, BLS EW IV. Quite common in European 1990s rolling stock.
The train interior looks good and the best part was seeing it run down the street
Amtrak: still has door issues
Simply railway: gets startled after the sink goes crazy
These cars are now more than 20 years in age. Considering the age of most of Amtrak's rolling stock, Amtrak is doing a good job just keeping these cars running. They look dated because they are dated...
First the surfliner and now the capital corridor! Nice! I think the capital corridor is definitely the slower of the 2
Yes, the Capital Corridor is slower than the Surfliner. The Surfliner has a legacy ATS system passed down from the days of ATSF that allows passenger trains to run at 90 mph between LA and SD.
@@dynasty0019doesnt the surfliner take 8 1/2 hours to travel from San diego to san luis obispo
The weird thing about the Amtrak California cars is that they will always get mixed up with Surfliner Cars, which yes are a little different, you can see in several videos that California Cars will be mixed in to Surfliner consists and also some Surfliner Cars have been painted for Amtrak California as well
If I'm not mistaken, the Surfliner cars in southern California that are owned by Caltrans have the square-looking Capitol Corridor seats. Surfliners owned by Amtrak have seats that are rounder in appearance.
There is a great Railroad museum in Sacramento and you can take the Capital Corridor right to it. There is a great restaurant and hotel in an old paddlewheel docked there , the Delta King, and Sacramento Old Town that would make for a fascinating trip and video content for you to record as well.
As someone who grew up with those railcars, I just assumed that's what all trains were like until I actually rode other Amtrak trains as an adult
16:00 in Sacramento we have something similar, but it’s for the light rail, not the Amtrak. It’s on the gold line between 23rd street and 29th street stations.
Love the video! Capitol corridor was my go to when I worked in Sacramento.
Pro-tip: be careful when using the bathroom faucets. They go from cold to hot pretty quick.
Great report. I've been binging on train videos, after stumbling on them from researching plane trips. I live line of sight of the Fremont train station for over twenty years and never seriously considered taking a trip. I like driving, but after research, from that Capitol Corridor route, it of course goes to Sacramento, but right after the Oakland stop is Emeryville, and that's the terminus of the California Zephyr from Chicago. So probably this winter I'll take the train from Fremont, to Emeryville to Reno, to avoid snowy road conditions driving to Reno. So timewise it would only be a few hours slower than driving.
That Capitol Corridor train interior look nice, bravo Amtrak. I also took a BART trip, to the airport, the first time I used BART in twenty years and the trains are disgusting. It's like a third world country. They are the exact same trains from twenty years ago, same seats, very beat up and repaired with duct tape. That's a youtube video there.
Unfortunately, sounds like you got one of the old cars. They are getting rid of them so maintenance is a low priority. BART's new trains are awesome! Truly modern and state of the art on a worldwide scale, not just by US standards! Probably the best mass transit train in the US right now. Check them out some time.
I used to commute on the Cap Corridor once a week. You sat on the correct side for that ride but I'm surprised you missed the ghost town in the marshes.
Можно поподробней про город призрак
Nice video! Please also report Coaster Commuter Rail train.
Thank you for this video!! Ive been waiting for one of you Rail reviewers to do amtrak california.. Im a huge fan and i live in sacramento!! Awesome video!! Got to love that street running in Jack London Square
Aha, you put Go Chiefs in very small print @ 8:26 but we saw it! Booo! GO NINERS! Seriously, great report. You’ve inspired me to try out the Capitol Corridor one of these weekends :)
You should do LA-San Luis Obisbo on surfliner very different experience. Also, you should do metro link, LA commuter service with lines from east ventura to the desert and Orange County
I moved to San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s, have been calling this place home for 35+ years, but I took train rides (real train, not BART) only twice, both CalTrain commuter trains on the peninsula, total travel distance less then 40 miles. Now, a Frenchman rode train through my hometown twice, and published such nice video! Wow!
Specifically, the Fremont train station at Thornton Ave (9:18) is 6 miles from my house, and Niles Junction (9:38) is only 4 miles from my house. However, I never even set my foot on any train in or thru my hometown.
Well, all I can say is my train experience in France is much much more than my train experience in the Bay Area. I have been on London to Paris EuroStar twice, and I have crossed the entire country of France (almost) on TGV from Avignon to Paris.
You need to try our new Amtrak California trains! You're paying for them too! They Amtrak California is not Federal Amtrak, it's a joint venture with Caltrans. They really do a good job! Much better than regular Amtrak service.
You can try taking the San Joaquins to Yosemite if you're in for a train adventure. You can buy a compound ticket that includes a connecting bus all the way into the Yosemite Valley. We did that a while ago and it was awesome. Plus they should have the new Brightline-style Siemens trains on the San Joaquins soon!
I've taken trains all over the world. I assure you that Amtrak California services are world-class. We don't give them all that much of our tax money, but they still manage to deliver fantastic service for the price!
As a wheelchair user, seeing some of the accessible features was really appreciated.
Yikes! San Jose to Oakland on the train. A true urban experience much of the way! It’s not a route most of us think of, since the Capitol trains popularly serve the Sacramento-SF route segment. Of course, the route also serves the 49ers stadium in nearby Santa Clara so gets heavy ridership those days.
Of course I’ve never ridden the Oakland-San Jose segment, so maybe I should just keep quiet. ;-)
Just a few things to clarify…
* CalTrans owns or leases almost all of the equipment they run on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin. On rare occasions you’ll see an Amtrak car or locomotive thrown in, but it’s not common. Especially since the pandemic began.
* The original order of California cars (California I) were ordered in the late 1980s and delivered in the early 1990s (between 1991-1993 I believe). The Alstom refurbishment about ten years ago was done between 15 and 20 years into their service life. These cars are exclusively used on the NorCal routes (Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin), and have rarely been seen in SoCal (Most recent was for the two weeks following the Montecito mudslide, when train service and ferries were the only way to access Santa Barbara. California sent a number of extra cars and locomotives south to expand the Pacific Surfliner trains, which were seeing crush loads of 800-1,000 people getting into and out of Santa Barbara).
*The second order of California Cars (California II, or Surfliner) was placed in the late 1990s and delivered between 2000 and 2002. About half of these cars are owned by Amtrak, the other half by California. There are a handful of California-owned Surfliner cars down south, but most of the Cali-owned ones are actually mixed in with the California I cars up north. All of the Amtrak-owned cars are used on the Surfliners. The plan as I understand it is for California to transfer down all of the Cali II “Surfliner” cars to SoCal once the new Siemens Venture trainsets are all delivered and in service on the San Joaquin route. This will greatly expand capacity on all three routes.
*CalTrans HATES reclining seatbacks. They prefer seat designs where the bottom cushion slides forward to recline, rather than the seatback dropping back. When they refurbished their Cali II cars they replaced the original reclining seats with the seats with the red handles you don’t like. The seats are not particularly well liked. CalTrans also gave Amtrak money and asked them to do the same to the Amtrak-owned cars, but Amtrak refused to make that change, leading to a huge dispute between CalTrans and Amtrak shortly before the pandemic. To my knowledge it’s still unresolved.
*The bouncy doors have always been a problem. Worst is when they bounce so hard that they break the “door closed” circuit, causing the engine to stop producing power. It hasn’t been resolved after 30 years.
Just look at those beautiful Chargers! Anyhow, the cab-car is an Alstom product (Surfliner) unlike the other three M-K/Amerail cars. I know Wikipedia says the California Cars were rebuilt by Alstom at Mare Island but I've been told they were cycled through the Siemens facility at French Road.
The new ALC-42’s r manufactured by Siemens mobility and these r manufactured by Siemens
French Road, Sacramento. Siemens has a huge plant there.
@@rickloduca394 .
One way to easily tell the difference is they moved the K5LA horn from the roof on MK cab cars to just above the coupler but below the diaphragm and recessed on the Alstom cab cars. It makes it much less noisy for the engineer, and places the horns closer to the level of automobile drivers' ears.
@@rickloduca394 I thought that was technically in Florin, CA, no?
I love that train! I used to take it for my daily commute to San Jose State University from Richmond. Fun experience!
Looking forward to railfanning out there one day when they have the station completely built out with all the services - Amtrak Cal, Caltrain, BART, etc
Pretty much all of our major rail lines are undergoing overhauls right now. In a way, the longer you wait to visit the more cool modern rail tech you'll see. Caltrain is moving to electric Stadler Kiss trains. BART is switching its entire fleet for brand new trains which are kind of awesome. They're also extending to San Jose and Santa Clara. The San Joaquins is getting Venture coaches to complete its "Brightline set" of Siemens Chargers + Venture car equipment.
Unfortunately, if you wait for too long you'll miss out on a lot of quirky legacy equipment. For the next couple of years you'll be able to see three or even four generations of different Bay Area trains running on the same lines at the same time. But this period won't last forever. BART in particular looks like it's replacing its fleet with some enthusiasm. And the San Joaquins will start switching to Ventures any day now.
I hope you have a great time when you visit!
The station is very beautiful. Being a museum buff I would have loved looking and reading all of the history in the exhibition. Taking a long train ride to somewhere I have never been to has been on my bucket list for a long time. Hope one day I can do just that. Love every one of your videos.
If you like old stations, go see the old SP 16th and Wood Oakland station that closed after the Loma Prieta earthquake! It has been largely stabilized seismically, otherwise it like a slice of history preserved in a time warp. Some group is trying too use it to rent out for events as an event space.
My god that is a beautiful station even today!
There is a depot with a witches hat in Abilene, Texas that never sees a passenger train... There are many old small depots just as beautiful in their own ways as a larger city station...
It looks like the bench seats (Compin?) are the same as on (some versions of) TGV Atlantique, ÖBB Bmpz (some of them with different headrests: The version in the "modular coaches" is the one I prefer), NS ICRm and ICMm, ex-BLS EW IV. They have nicely large tables, but can't be reclined. So this is indeed quite European, a basic seat type that has been used in France, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
When did you make this? You forgot to add VTA light rail services @ San Jose Diridon.
I'm pretty sure it was already mentioned, but Amtrak CALIFORNIA received a handful of the Surfliner cars to Supplement the Amtrak California fleet. The smaller set of ribs on the exterior of the car, the different seating inside the car, and downstairs Cafe are what makes the difference. Oh and the folding tables.
Thanks for having us on board. Great video!
Great trip. European vibe inside the coach car.
What a great little trip - thanks for sharing it. I totally agree on the cafe car - absolutely fabulous with all the different types of seats....what a shame it was closed.
Just a tip about Capitol Corridor if you have no room under the seat your welcome to stow the stuff in the overhead bins.
Glad you liked my home train, great video.
Great report as usual, Thibault. You love our trains and we love you. Hope you can come back at some point. btw, on your report last week you weren't wearing a hat and it looked like you had been in a very windy place! You are a unique guy, free to be yourself and that is one reason you are well liked and popular. Keep the videos coming.
Terrific trip report and video!
What's very interesting about CalTrain regarding CalTrans, is that CalTrain was originally operated by CalTrans starting in 1985 and into the early 1990's before the current operator took over. If you search for "CalTrain 1980's" you can see the old paint scheme with the large CalTrans logo on the side of the equipment
If I’m not mistaken the Surfliner chargers are Amtrak but the Northern California ones are Caltrans
That cafe car layout though 🤤
Such design that putting the corridor on the upper deck reminds me of the TGV.
Great video! I enjoyed seeing you do the intro and outro. I hope you’ll do more on-camera segments!
Great review. Thank you Thibault!!👍👍😄😄💚💚
Nice video as always! At 14:14 in the video the dryer is a Bobrick Aircraft.
Excellent video, do you have any video of Holland Michigan train??
New Subscriber!
Great video! In the future, if you ever want to be able to differentiate the California Cars from the Surfliner Cars, the California Cars are numbered in the 8000s, while the Surfliner cars (including the cab car in this video) are numbered in the 6000s. According to Wikipedia, there are currently 12 Surfliner Cars being used to supplement the 66 existing California Cars.
If you want some really nice views, I recommend taking the Pennsylvanian from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in the fall. The leaves are all changing and a lot of the route runs along a river that cuts through the Appalachian mountains. It also runs on the world famous horseshoe curve bend!
So true. I love that scretch just outside of Harrisburg along US15 and US22, which parallels the Juniata River.
Thanks for the reco!
U.S trains are a classic in the wide world of trains
That cab/coach car looks as if it was never refurbished. The seats looks much closer to the original California Car seats. The newer seats look good though!
Super coool video!
You just came up in my stream. I am from London, live in Canada 🇨🇦 and watch Northern Eastern North Amharic’s stuff. This was a sunny surprise!
Merçi 😊
I was wondering if you were able to see the ghost town of Drawbridge in the marsh lands just outside of Alviso and before you get to Newark/Fremont.
Came here to comment on that. Drawbridge is neat and has an interesting history! A real old-west ghost town right in the middle of the bay area! He commented on the salt marsh but didn't show the part with Drawbridge.
Thought that some of the coach interiors somewhat looked like those on the Brussels-Mechelen-Antwerp-Breda-Rotterdam-Amsterdam Intercity Direct
Your reviews are always great!
I would like you to review the Shinkansen of Japan by all means.
Ive been waiting for this clip
very similar run on bart is a lot cheaper. this route is mostly used to get to Sac from the bay
not surprised to see lots of chargers, F40PH are getting old.
I guess the local residents appreciate the update, the Chargers seem really silent compared to the F40's.
@@stephanweinberger if I lived closer to the tracks like I would care
One of ace’s f40’s was built in 2006.
@@folkeklarstrom3668 production ended in 92/98 it may have gotten a rebuilt in 2006 but it wouldn’t be new
@@gdrriley420 it was built my morrison knudsen/ motivepower inc.
Love your videos! So impressed with how well they are made and thank you for allowing enough time to READ the script/text! I subscribed! 🌟 🎯 🌟
Great tripreport! Just found out your channel. I’d love to see a video of you trying the dutch NS ICM(m) or “koploper”!:) It runs every half hour between Rotterdam Centraal via Utrecht or Den Haag (The Hague) via Schiphol Airport to Groningen (beautiful town in the north of the Netherlands). Groningen has won Several awards about having the most beautiful station of the Netherlands. Id love to see a review of this trip and of the station of Groningen. Also from Groningen arriva runs regional lines with stadler trains. The Arriva stadler WINK trains are very new (trains were taken into service this year!) and special because they can run on bio fuel and electricity. I’m really looking forward and hoping you’ll review this😁
I hope that you will ride and review the Piedmont in NC. The state sponsored route between Charlotte and Raleigh uses refurbished rolling stock that predates Amtrak. It’s a scenic trip, and one of the very few state sponsored routes in the Deep South.
Fortunately back during the nineteenth century the state of North Carolina had the foresight and wisdom to financially back the railroad track corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte this Amtrak regional train uses today. Norfolk Southern couldn't say NO when the state desired to invest into this Amtrak's regional train. The state had leverage, if the state couldn't use this line, NS couldn't use this line...
capital corridor and san joaquin actually recently got two more.
Very nice Mr. Railway. Enjoying your content sir. Thank you...
First...and iam excited for this yaayy... thank you for your hard work..you keep us entertained in every video
Great video !!
I take the Capitol Corridor from Martinez to Sacramento regularly, and I have never been to the cafe car... I had no idea it would be so different from the cafe cars on all the other Superliner-based trains.
The seats are just like Austrian IC cars, different head pieces, but otherwise the same.
11:26 from the Surfliner, which has these seats on I believe the second batch of coaches
Never mind, you’re right!
Caltrans ordered some of the Surfliner coaches (the name of the series, not transfers from the stock) for themselves to use on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin around 2004 to increase capacity, so part of the fleet that the Surfliner uses, but not taken from their fleet.
Love to see how far along the Electrification is!
If they have reached San Jose, the poles are nearly complete. Hanging the wiring is not nearly as complete. Where California is going to find new sources of electricity is another story with their history of rolling blackouts lately...
awsome report iv always dreamed of going to capital corridor and iv have not been there so it might be a good chance to vist there soon
Caltrain got its name because Caltrans used to operate the service after the SP turned it over.
If you make the double-decker coach fit French Loading gauge then you can board them the problem will be Germany they use a 76cm 30 in high platform which is 45cm lower than Northeastern United States platform height which is 121 cm above track. Well done video and if you look at European high-speed trains using Northeastern United States high-level platforms during the same level but in Germany and France a step is used since there's a 45cm gap between between floor and a platform. Caltrain is going 121cm high platforms
the california car came before the surfliner so its actually the surflienr that stoel the california cars design also a few surfliners are on the route
For the part where you show the aerial map of the train route, speeding it up might or might not be desired, but it would be helpful if at the end you pause for a second or two to make it clear where it ends and give viewers a chance to see the entire route complete.
I like the new Seat Check header!
3:40 I love how the engine you hear most is not the one in front of you 😂
16:09 I bet that's why these things never reach 125 MPH 😜
J'étais très curieux de voir la voiture pilote de l'extérieur. C'est très impressionnant. Merci pour la vidéo.
The seats on the Capitol Corridor/ San Joaquins cars seem very similar to those used on the older Danish (DSB) trains! Particularly the funny ones that go from Copenhagen to Hamburg 😅
Watching you ride Amtrak after seeing your report on European high speed trains is like going from the future to the 1950s.
lmao
Or going from Lufthansa to spirit?
@@Cal90208 hahahaha exactly.
@@Cal90208 I dunno, I've had some pretty jarring experiences with Lufthansa. They can be real a$$#oles sometimes.
I love how spatious these US trains look from the inside, even the double decker ones, compared to their European counterparts. The increased track clearance really allows for some more room onboard!
However, I get the impression from most of these videos that passenger trains in the US run basically empty... It's sad to see such well equipped and clean trains serving no one...
Most likely would have been fit with a 3+2 seat configuration for Chinese trains with similar track clearance.
Corridor trains such as this were hard hit by the pandemic. They are starting to recover now but before the pandemic these trains were always packed.
The pandemic has dramatically reduced ridership.
Commuters tend to use the cheaper commuter trains. Even in California people tend to use their cars to travel intercity, to another city a hour or two away. Amtrak regional train fares are steep compared to commuter trains. Nationwide Amtrak's regional trains do fill up during rush hours. Like city buses, regional trains run nearly empty during non rush hours...
Capital quarter is basically a express route that have daily trips from San Jose all the way up to Sacramento and they go back-and-forth North and South and it puts a lot of miles on those cars to all those cars and those cars are maintenance heavy that's the reason why they're maintenance facility in Oakland California is so busy
(16:27) The train pushed backwards is as slippery as a Barn door, but the locomotive has a streamlined attachment to the wagons at the end of the roof. - Greetings, Heinz
The “Aerodynamic” top is in fact to keep the smoke from the engine from going in the upper level end door when the engine is leading.
Its so cool 10/10
great video
Most cars on the Capitol Corridor train were built by Morrison-Knudsen, but all the Pacific Surfliner cars were built by Alstom. Some cars on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains are Alstom-built too. One difference between the Alstom and MK cars is that the luggage storage on the MK cars has a closing door, but on the Alstom cars, they don’t. Also, on the Alstom cars, whenever the conductor picks up the PA to make an announcement, a three-tone chime rings in the car right before he/she speaks into the mike. That chime is not present in the MK cars. I like the interiors of MK cars better, but I really like the sound of the chime. If only MK cars had that chime
Hi, love your trip reports. Quick comment regarding the fourth car on your train, it is a Surfliner car. The original California cars were used on all three of the state supported Amtrak routes and there was a plan to make a commuter version for caltrain as well, which obviously never developed. When the state of California ordered the California Cars 2.0 they made the decision to shift all of the existing fleet to northern California and that's why the new cars were branded the Surfliner cars. But something like 12 of the new cars were also sent to the northern California fleet and painted to match the existing California cars. They weren't repurposed from the Surfline, they were always intended to go there to expand that service. And as service has expanded they need more cars still which is why they've paid to refurbish damaged superliners and has placed for the 3.0 California cars that have now been switched out for single levels. I'm guessing all of the surfliner cars in 1.0 paint will move down to the Surfliner when the Venture cars take over on the San Joaquin. But that's just a guess.
Or maybe retired and sold for scrap?
@@ronclark9724 The Pacific Surfliner needs more equipment and this is matching equipment the same age that the state already owns. They wouldn’t scrap the cars. The only question is if they move equipment south or keep everything for the Capitals.
I am still not over Nippon Sharyo's failure to provide a proper bi-level replacement for the iconic California and Surfliner cars. As much as I love the Siemens Venture cars, it just doesn't scream California because it's not bi-level.
What’s the story for that? The crash worthiness problem or something else?
And are they replacing all of the bi-levels with ventures cars?
@@翟义琥 yea, seems safety reasons
Isn’t it a tragedy? The new Siemens Venture cars are, of course, nicer than the current single level equipment (if they ever get placed into service!), but bilevels are what we really needed, for capacity, comfort, and ease of boarding/detraining.
Nippon Sharyo didn't fail, it was a regulatory fluke. They failed the 800k buff strength test shortly before the test was removed and no longer a requirement for new North American passenger equipment. If they had gone to FRA testing just a little later they'd have been approved
@@c58rytcx High platforms are very easy for disembarking and boarding.
Lucky enough to ride a Surfliner cabcar, as 6964 (Point Arena) leading as Capitol Corridor with a nice horn (or K5LA - a type of horn most commonly used for passengers or sometimes freight)
Thanks for the ride