The final run of Amtrak's state-supported overnight Sacramento to Los Angeles train, the Spirit of California, has arrived in Los Angeles on October 1st, 1983. This service operated just two years before then-new governor George Deukmejian cut funding for the train. The train was no more, and things looked bleak for rail service in the early 1980s - even the iconic clock tower of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (in the background) looks shabby. But while the Spirit would not return, passenger service in the Golden State would soon be booming, and Union Station would be served by not just Amtrak, but also Metrolink commuter trains and, improbably to us in 1983, even a subway and light rail trolleys! And Union Station itself would be restored to a brilliance it hadn't seen in decades, including the restoration of tracks that had been gone for years.
