Roughly 7½ hours earlier, at 6:12 am, Amtrak Pacific Surfliner 774 departed San Luis Obispo for San Diego. A little over two-thirds of the way there, CDTX SC-44 2122 and its six-car train pass through the Metrolink station in Orange. Fortunately, this segment of the trip is faster, and the train will arrive in San Diego at 2:50 pm (14:50) – The first 110 miles (177 km) from SLO to Goleta is, frustratingly, mind-numbingly slow as neither Amtrak, nor CalTrans, nor Union Pacific is willing to pay to upgrade the trackage to allow true passenger speeds. I suspect increasing the speed on this segment would increase ridership, as who enjoys spending 2½ hours creeping along at 40 mph (64.4 km/h)? In my opinion, they are building California’s high-speed rail in the wrong part of the state! It ought to be on this line, the third busiest rail line on Amtrak’s nationwide system. (Orange, California – November 16, 2023)
