Train 563 is an early-morning daily train from San Diego to LAUS. Beginning Feb 15, it runs weekends-only. In its place on weekdays is a new train, 563, that skips five stations: Capistrano, Laguna Niguel, Santa Ana, Orange and Fullerton. Both 565 and 563 depart at 7:05, but whereas 565 arrives in L.A. at 9:50, the new 563 arrives at 9:33.
The only way I found this out was through a service alert when I was booking a different trip. But other than that, this seems to be a stealth change. Anyone have further info? Is this a market test? Is it somehow related to track or station work?
As for the announcement of this, Amtrak has advertised it on the trains, in the stations and on the website. Ideally it would also do ads in the SoCal media market if unlimited funds were available. They aren't.
To the more interesting question of what this may mean.
This is not the first time that Amtrak has tried express and semi-express skip-stop service between San Diego and LA.
In the 1990s, the last time the service was offered (if I remember correctly), there were two trains, one each way, which skipped several stations in Orange County. The service did not attract enough riders and lasted only about a year. At the time, the explanation was that Amtrak was losing too many passengers wanting to board/alight at Orange County intermediate stops.
Now, with substantial (hourly or less) Metrolink service between LA and Orange County stops in the morning period, there may be less need for an early-morning Amtrak train to stop at most of the same Orange County stations. The M-F train being replaced, 565 with 563, essentially is sandwiched between Metrolink runs and often is delayed. So Amtrak could be testing whether the number of riders between LA and San Diego County stops has grown sufficiently to justify skip-stop service, as well as to offer more reliable running times. I suspect Irvine is retained because many San Diego North County residents commute to high-tech jobs in that area; Anaheim because of the Disneyland connection.
Non-stop service between LA and San Diego was provided in the 1950s by Santa Fe, using Budd self-propelled rail diesel cars on a two hour, 30-minute schedule. They were very popular until January 22, 1956 when the engineer on one run blacked out leaving Los Angeles and accelerated the consist to 75 miles an hour on the old Redondo Junction Curve instead of slowing to 15 miles per hour as required. It was (and still is) the worst rail accident in California history in terms of deaths, with 31 killed, as well as hundreds injured. I remember, as a little kid, watching the first live remote TV news broadcast done in LA, by KTLA Channel 5.
(By the way, the Redondo Junction curve was replaced with a graceful curving bridge in 2000 when the Alameda Freight Corridor was built between the downtown Hobart Yard and the Port of Los Angeles/Port of Long Beach and tracks realigned in the area. It's still a 30 mph speed restriction, though.)
