de-train

From time to time I labor under the idea that people from far away locales are reading this. I don't labor very hard, to be sure, which is just as well since I'm fairly certain my 3 readers (down 40%!) are all locals. Anyhow, its worth saying that our rail system in Northern California and the Bay area is fairly linear. Multi-linear, perhaps, but certainly falling well short of being a web or a network. If the New York area rail system resembles a box of uncooked noodles poured out on the counter, the Bay's rail is the crayola 12-crayon box lying in a heap. Odds are you can find something heading from vaguely your direction to vaguely the place you want to be, but unfortunately the difference between 'vague' and where you're actually going seems to be a minimum of 4 miles.

We do, on the other hand, have a growing traffic problem. San Francisco isn't NYC, but I've had the pleasure of commuting through the bay before and I don't know what to call it aside from a phrase involving a cluster. For both infrastructure logistics and green reasons, the train starts to look like an attractive alternative.

Here's what we expect the train to be: It should be a little slower than a fast car ride in no traffic, since it keeps stopping, but should be consistent, without worry of a traffic jam. You should be able to relax while you're riding the train, since you don't have to worry about steering the thing. And, of course, it should at least link up with something that can get you where you need to be.

The grossest failing of the train is it's lack of consistency. It weighs 500 tons, rides on a set of rails, and has a published schedule, and yet is still somehow subject to traffic. Amtrak, it seems, is not only burdened with the usual set of mechanical issues but also takes a back seat to freight traffic and track work on a routine basis. Some sort of delay occurs every second day or so, and several times a month the delays stretch into the hours, sometimes to the point of asking the passengers to switch to another train. And at that point the comfort of riding the train becomes the hope that you can make it 80 miles in under 3 hours, and that you won't be stuck standing on the platform for too long at 11pm waiting for the delayed replacement train.

West coast rail is nowhere near the East in scope, and it doesn't make sense to expand it unless more people are going to ride. The way things are looking though, I'll be keeping it out of my own plans.

6/29 Edit: Numbers are in, train ridership is down 13% this year. Bam. They responded by raising ticket prices. Bam?