None aboard while Amtrak's coastal service suspended.The Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. hospitality industry is being hit hard by nature's assault on the Pacific Coast's narrow rail system. Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run , which normally runs six trains along oceanside tracks it leases from Union Pacific Corp., has not been able to operate the line since Jan. 9, when torrential rains rendered a section of the rails impassable. "Has it hurt that Amtrak can't get through? I'm sure that it has," said Tom Patton, general manager of the Ramada ra·ma·da n. Southwestern U.S. 1. a. An open or semienclosed shelter roofed with brush or branches, designed especially to provide shade. b. An open porch or breezeway. 2. Ltd. hotel and president of the Greater Santa Barbara Lodging Association. "Can I quantify that'? No." The actual impact of the loss of the Coast Starlight (from L.A. to Seattle) and Pacific Surfliner The Pacific Surfliner is a 350-mile (563 km) Amtrak passenger train route serving communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo. It is the second-busiest rail route in the Amtrak system after the Northeast Corridor. (San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. to Paso Robles Robles is a common surname in the Spanish language meaning oaks, and may refer to:
"I heard that many hotels had the worst January ever," said Annmarie Rogers, director of the chamber's visitor center. "'Even on that long weekend, the Martin Luther King holiday, usually everything is booked (but) they said it was slow." Northbound Coast Starlight service won't resume until at least Feb. 28. Beginning on Feb. 8, the Pacific Surfliner will take passengers only as far as Santa Barbara; from there, they will transfer to buses arranged by Amtrak. "Anytime there is a disruption on the freight line, it disrupts our service as well," said Sarah Swain, a spokeswoman for Amtrak. "We run into disruptions periodically, but this time we had multiple disruptions. "This is going to affect (revenues)." While hotels took a hit from the lack of tourist spending, the rail washout washout to disperse or empty by flooding with water or other solvent. medullary solute washout a syndrome in which the relative hyperosmolarity of the renal medulla is reduced due to an excessive loss of sodium and chloride from and the Jan. 10 La Conchita mudslide also stranded people in town, mitigating the losses. Other losses will be made up in the coming months from trips that were postponed but not canceled. The loss of Amtrak service took a toll because it has hindered the heavily-promoted Santa Barbara Car Free Project the city runs in conjunction with Amtrak. "I've gotten calls from people who have postponed their travel so they can still come on the train," said Mary Byrd, manager of the Car Free Project. "It's good for our project that the trains are going to be running again soon." An average 5,000 passengers make trips each day between Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and Santa Barbara on the five daily Pacific Surfliner trains (six run on weekends). The Coast Starlight, which runs from L.A. to Seattle, runs one train daily in each direction and carries about 1,000 passengers, 500 each way. That volume pales besides Amtrak's most-traveled route, the Northeast Corridor This article is about a rail line. For the agglomeration of metropolitan areas, see BosWash. For the New Jersey Transit line, see Northeast Corridor Line. The Northeast Corridor (NEC between Boston and Washington, where 30,000 people climb aboard for part of the way each day. Along the Pacific Coast, Amtrak runs on tracks leased from private rail systems such as Union Pacific. The freight carrier reopened the route on a limited basis on Jan. 22, but only for its own trains and only at night. Workers have been upgrading tracks during the day. "If we let (Amtrak) run, it would break up the maintenance windows and extend the amount of time it would take to fully restore the route to normal operating speeds," said John Bromley, a spokesman for Union Pacific. Some believe there is a lack of urgency on the part of Union Pacific because it transports the bulk of its northbound freight through the Central Valley, not along the coastal route the commuter line uses. "It's not a priority for Union Pacific to get it back into service," said Jack Kyser, senior economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Amtrak required a $1.2 billion subsidy to maintain its $3 billion operation through the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30. President Bush, seeking to cut the federal deficit, eliminated the subsidy in the fiscal 2006 budget proposal. Affected Lines Amtrak routes Amtrak operates the following passenger train routes. Current routes Name Route Origin Numbers Frequency Acela Express Boston - Washington, DC (high-speed rail) PC more than daily Adirondack Montreal - New York via Albany D&H 68-71 daily to Santa Barbara have yet to recover. Pacific Surfliner Route: San Diego to Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (săn l  `ĭs ōbĭs`pō), city (1990 pop. 41,958), seat of San Luis Obispo co., S Calif., near San Luis Obispo Bay; inc. 1856. Number of trips/day: 5 on weekdays, 6 on weekends Number of passengers/day: 5,000 Average ticket cost: $14 Coast Starlight Route: Los Angeles to Seattle Number of trips/day: 1 each way, 7 days per week Number of passengers/day: 1,000 Average ticket cost: $65 Source: Amtrak |
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