Amtrak Ending Service to Carlsbad Village (CBV)?

[EchoSierra]

I received an email today saying that my San Diego to Carlsbad Village ticket was rebooked to Oceanside due to a schedule change. My ticket is booked for Halloween.

I thought this was strange, so I looked to see if I can book an identical ticket for that same day. No results. Then, I looked at today and tomorrow and there were tickets available. So, I just kept going and saw that tickets aren't available after October 8th.

I didn't see any alerts or announcements, so does this mean that Amtrak will end service to Carlsbad Village (CBV) on the 8th?

 

[Trogdor]

Probably ending whatever odd arrangement they had with Coaster. Honestly, making commuter stops every few minutes on a long run like that never made sense.

 

[cpotisch]

Checked Arrow and it looks like service to Carlsbad ends after 10/7. It's not mentioned on the service alerts page, but from what I can see, Amtrak is done with Carlsbad after the 7th.

 

[the_traveler]

That is what it sounds like, that the duplication of stops between Amtrak and Coaster or Metrolink are ending. It does not make sense for Amtrak to make stops at every station served by a commuter railroad.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

They still stop pretty frequently through Orange County at Irvine, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Fullerton though. Carlsbad Poinsettia would be a nice middle point between Solana Beach and Oceanside, which are 20 mins apart by car (15 by train).

 

[TinCan782]

Metrolink (SCRRA) has posted this info ... effective October 8 ...

https://www.metrolinktrains.com/schedules/schedule-change/

 

[thully]

There is a new Coaster schedule effective October 8th:

http://www.gonctd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/COASTER-Schedule-Flyer-Oct-2018-1.pdf

Per this schedule, Coaster pass holders will now be able to ride any Amtrak train between Oceanside and San Diego, but Amtrak will no longer have any trains stop at Carlsbad Village or Sorrento Valley (or the previously discontinued Poinsettia and Encinitas stops).

I used to live in SD, and occasionally used those stops (Sorrento Valley was closer to where I lived than Solana Beach/San Diego), though it did slow down those trips and Im not sure that many people used it. I guess if you want to ride from Carlsbad you will just have to ride Coaster, NCTD buses or drive to Oceanside/Solana Beach.

 

[TinCan782]

Per this schedule, Coaster pass holders will now be able to ride any Amtrak train between Oceanside and San Diego, but Amtrak will no longer have any trains stop at Carlsbad Village or Sorrento Valley (or the previously discontinued Poinsettia and Encinitas stops).

This is pretty much equivalent to Metrolink/Amtrak's "Rail-to-Rail" service between Oceanside and Oxnard.

 

[BCL]

They still stop pretty frequently through Orange County at Irvine, Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Fullerton though. Carlsbad Poinsettia would be a nice middle point between Solana Beach and Oceanside, which are 20 mins apart by car (15 by train).

Thats a pretty heavily populated area, and all four of those stations are staffed, full service ones.

 

[cpotisch]

There is a new Coaster schedule effective October 8th:

http://www.gonctd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/COASTER-Schedule-Flyer-Oct-2018-1.pdf

Per this schedule, Coaster pass holders will now be able to ride any Amtrak train between Oceanside and San Diego, but Amtrak will no longer have any trains stop at Carlsbad Village or Sorrento Valley (or the previously discontinued Poinsettia and Encinitas stops).

I used to live in SD, and occasionally used those stops (Sorrento Valley was closer to where I lived than Solana Beach/San Diego), though it did slow down those trips and Im not sure that many people used it. I guess if you want to ride from Carlsbad you will just have to ride Coaster, NCTD buses or drive to Oceanside/Solana Beach.

Does Amtrak also cross-honor regular Coaster tickets, or just the passes?

 

[thully]

They currently cross-honor all Coaster tickets (including single ride) on a few select trains (the ones that made the additional stops). Those trains are shown on the current Coaster schedule. I’ve purchased single-ride Coaster tickets in the past to ride one of those Surfliners (which were shown on the Coaster schedule) - actually did that on my last trip back to SD.

The way I read it, the new policy will only include day and month passes (unless they just forgot to mention single ride tickets) but will be valid on all trains (though no additional stops will be made on any train - just San Diego, Old Town, Solana Beach, and Oceanside)).

 

[TinCan782]

On the Metrolink side of things, only monthly passes are honored. I've done that a few times - used my Metrolink monthly pass to ride a Surfliner when the time is more convenient than the next Metrolink train. I use the Ventura County Line for my daily commute.

https://www.metrolinktrains.com/rider-info/general-info/rail-2-rail/

 

[iplaybass]

Metrolink (SCRRA) has posted this info ... effective October 8 ...

https://www.metrolinktrains.com/schedules/schedule-change/

That explains the change to our 572 tickets. 26 minutes earlier doesn't impact us other than a slightly earlier start to have breakfast and get to the Metropolitan Lounge in time to chill and get a RedCap.