As New Years wound down, I realized I had very little work to do on the 2nd, and what little I did have could all easily be done from my laptop. I've been wanting to try another Amtrak route, so made plans to ride the length of the Capitol Corridor yesterday (I'm preparing this early morning on the 3rd).
Admittedly, a 4-ish hour trip on a coach only corridor train is not the most exciting thing, but a similar report I did for the Heartland Flyer last year seemed to interest enough people, so..
Started the day with a morning flight up to San Jose. After arriving into the airport, and got a quick ride over to San Jose Diridon, and arrived with a bit more than an hour until 538 Northbound was set to depart. The station is now totally reopened since my last visit, and the waiting area (pictures below) is now accessible again. I don't know I'd call it "renovated", but it's certainly restored, bright, and pretty fresh - with a few glass cases of exhibits about local rail history.
An older thread here had a lot of question/dobut about which track the Cap Corridor departed from. When I arrived to the station I asked at the desk, and she said she didn't know yet, but it would go up on the board. About 30 minutes before departure, the train arrived from it's inbound trip, and remained at Track 1 - the only upstairs platform, and clearly visible from the station. That information never appeared on the board - but it was a bit hard to miss the train right outside, and the exterior electionic board on the train itself was updated as well.
The gate opened for boarding about 15 minutes before depature, with those heading to the last three stops, including Auburn, directed to the very front car, and the remaining three cars open to all.
That front car varied in terms of busy-ness over the course of the trip - at times maybe 60% full, enough so that at least some people had to sit next to someone else. For the most part, though, it wasn't that busy - unsure if that's typical, or the tail end of the holiday week. Most passengers seemed to be business/work day travellers with no luggage.
The car was fairly clean (though not perfect), and the windows clean as well. Attendant passed through very often - I normally ride the Surfliner, where, probably 50% of the time, tickets are never scanned. Here, tickets were reliably scanned after every stop, and seat tags were checked often. As an aside, seat tags were printed off a portable printer, not handwritten paper like on the Surfliner.
The seats were more basic (shown in picture) than the Surfliner - they didn't recline, but did have moveable arm rests and very good tray tables. A single working electric outlet was at the outer edge of each seat pair, just under the window.
Made one trip to the cafe, located downstairs in car #3 (so one car back from the front). No seating in the cafe itself, but everything was well stocked, neatly organized, and service very friendly.
Scenerey was a mix - a few pretty spots in the pictures, lots of "very ordinary", and of course some pretty dreary looking views heading through Oakland. At one point the train passed a shallow ditch. There was an area, maybe 10 x 40 feet, filled with shallow water. In that water, floated an upside down and partially burned shell from a pickup truck bed, like a little boat. And in that little boat was someone sleeping on a sleeping bag.
I rode the train it's full length, all the way to Auburn - and it ran consistently on time, down to the minute, for the entire duration of the trip. After arrival, took a quick Uber ride to hotel, and got some sushi for dinner.
In a couple hours, I'll be taking the train back - though only the first hour from Auburn to Sacramento, then flying back home from SMF. Nice way to spend a day (and night), and a nice train service as well.
Admittedly, a 4-ish hour trip on a coach only corridor train is not the most exciting thing, but a similar report I did for the Heartland Flyer last year seemed to interest enough people, so..
Started the day with a morning flight up to San Jose. After arriving into the airport, and got a quick ride over to San Jose Diridon, and arrived with a bit more than an hour until 538 Northbound was set to depart. The station is now totally reopened since my last visit, and the waiting area (pictures below) is now accessible again. I don't know I'd call it "renovated", but it's certainly restored, bright, and pretty fresh - with a few glass cases of exhibits about local rail history.
An older thread here had a lot of question/dobut about which track the Cap Corridor departed from. When I arrived to the station I asked at the desk, and she said she didn't know yet, but it would go up on the board. About 30 minutes before departure, the train arrived from it's inbound trip, and remained at Track 1 - the only upstairs platform, and clearly visible from the station. That information never appeared on the board - but it was a bit hard to miss the train right outside, and the exterior electionic board on the train itself was updated as well.
The gate opened for boarding about 15 minutes before depature, with those heading to the last three stops, including Auburn, directed to the very front car, and the remaining three cars open to all.
That front car varied in terms of busy-ness over the course of the trip - at times maybe 60% full, enough so that at least some people had to sit next to someone else. For the most part, though, it wasn't that busy - unsure if that's typical, or the tail end of the holiday week. Most passengers seemed to be business/work day travellers with no luggage.
The car was fairly clean (though not perfect), and the windows clean as well. Attendant passed through very often - I normally ride the Surfliner, where, probably 50% of the time, tickets are never scanned. Here, tickets were reliably scanned after every stop, and seat tags were checked often. As an aside, seat tags were printed off a portable printer, not handwritten paper like on the Surfliner.
The seats were more basic (shown in picture) than the Surfliner - they didn't recline, but did have moveable arm rests and very good tray tables. A single working electric outlet was at the outer edge of each seat pair, just under the window.
Made one trip to the cafe, located downstairs in car #3 (so one car back from the front). No seating in the cafe itself, but everything was well stocked, neatly organized, and service very friendly.
Scenerey was a mix - a few pretty spots in the pictures, lots of "very ordinary", and of course some pretty dreary looking views heading through Oakland. At one point the train passed a shallow ditch. There was an area, maybe 10 x 40 feet, filled with shallow water. In that water, floated an upside down and partially burned shell from a pickup truck bed, like a little boat. And in that little boat was someone sleeping on a sleeping bag.
I rode the train it's full length, all the way to Auburn - and it ran consistently on time, down to the minute, for the entire duration of the trip. After arrival, took a quick Uber ride to hotel, and got some sushi for dinner.
In a couple hours, I'll be taking the train back - though only the first hour from Auburn to Sacramento, then flying back home from SMF. Nice way to spend a day (and night), and a nice train service as well.
