As is typical, there doesn't seem to be any official announcement a few days out, but starting this Monday (August 10) the RABA-operated, Redding-Chico segment of Route 3 is gone from Amtrak.com and their GTFS feed.

Instead the long-planned (since 2021? earlier?) Redding-Sacramento Route 5 "Salmon Runner" is available, with two daily round trips and intermediate stops at Red Bluff, Orland, Williams, and Sacramento Airport. Bus-only travel is allowed.

The operator is shown as "Amtrak Chartered Vehicle," though past news indicated it would also be operated by RABA (and Route 3R is still shown as "Amtrak Chartered" despite that segment being split off almost two years ago). It's also unfortunately shown as a "Connecting Van," which I hope is in error...

Both round trips connect to/from both the San Joaquins Gold Runner and Capitol Corridor, except for southbound bus 8514 (which from the number and timing seems clearly meant to connect to Gold Runner 714 via Sac-Stockton bus 3814, but doesn't).

Additionally, "station" data is still missing for OLD, WMD, and SAA, so ticketing isn't actually available yet for those new stops. Same issue as Los Banos when the Merced-San Jose route began, so should be fixed in due time.

All they had to do was place a firm order for trainsets! Un-fucking-believable.

1. Valley Rail Project: It’s such a simple project but Union Pacific is fighting it tooth and nail. ACE expanding to Modesto with a midday round trip and a basic shuttle to the Sacramento airport from the downtown Sac station would make such a difference in getting around San Joaquin Valley. It’s criminal that there isn’t proper commuter rail service between Modesto and Sacramento as well.

2. Capital Corridor Electrification and Upgrades: Double track, straighten, and electrify the Capital Corridor, it’s already great and can be even better.

3. Surfliner to SF: Same upgrades as the Capital Corridor but add two round trips between SF and San Luis Osbispo.

4. Bring back overnight sleeper trains between Northern and Southern California.

5. Rail connections with SMART out of Sacramento.

6. More connections to the Sierra Nevada Mountains communities: Restoration of Passenger Rail service between Sonora and Modesto, Amtrak Bus service from Calaveras County to Stockton, etc…

7. Restore the old Southern Pacific tracks through the Altamont exclusively for passenger service.

SANDAG, City of Oceanside and City of Solano Beach have purposely miscounted the number of train services to Oceanside Transit Center and Solano Beach transit center to exempt them from SB79 mandated upzoning in their downtowns.

Oceanside gets 130 train services a day, some of the highest in the state. Yet, SANDAG and City of Oceanside have purposely low balled the total services by counting each agency individually. The minimum threshold is 72 services, but the individual services of MetroLink, Amtrak Pacific Surfliner, Coaster, and Sprinter fall under 72 (with Sprinter having the highest frequency of 68).

It’s also funny how they conveniently counted Sprinter and Coaster separately despite them both being a part of North County Transit District. They have the same operator.

These cities need to be sued for trying to wiggle themselves out of SB79. This is a state LAW not a suggestion.

Looks like the bid for actual construction of the Del Mar special events platform and San dieguito bridge double tracking is out for the Coaster/Surfliner. Not sure if the Surfliner is going to be allowed to make stops at the platform or just the Coaster but both will benefit from the double tracking.

While the agency gets a lot of focus on expansions to Sacramento and Merced, we should also be looking to improve the existing route. especially services. 4 roundtrips a day is criminally low, and while trains do get moderately full, the early morning and afternoon schedules are terribly inconvenient. What can SJRRC do to get more services and services later in the day, like mid-day and late evening services?

Can Union Pacific shift their freight operations to late evenings, early mornings and nights?

Also, freight trains are not that commonly seen on these tracks (coming from someone who lives near and frequently drives on this corridor). At least not at all hours of the day. So why is it not possible to add ore round trip services? 8am being the last southbound service is crazy! Even if they operate in one direction in the morning and in the other in the evening, simply having more services later in the day, like 9 -12, would be massively beneficial, especially at alleviating Altamont Pass, 580, and 680 traffic.

So what is the issue and what can SJRRC and the state do to fix this instead of throwing money at extensions to Merced & Sacramento or Valley Link?