Hacker News Reader

Comment by mhermher | Hacker News Reader

It's not redundant with amtrak. There's no way to get from LA to SD on passenger rail without transferring through busses.

View on HN

The Coastal Starlight runs from Union Station in DTLA to Jack London Square in Oakland. From there, it's a quick walk to BART to get into San Francisco - no bus required.

That being said, the trip takes 13 hours and some change, depending where in SF you're trying to go - which would be blown out of the water by HSR.

That must be new. That wasn't available as of like we years ago or so.

That rail route has ran continuously since 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Starlight. The transbay tube connecting Oakland to San Francisco via BART opened in 1974.

it's worth noting that coast starlight's once-a-day-each-way schedule sort of makes it limited as a commuter rail option.

Its too long and slow to be commuter rail anyways. The Bay Area -> LA segment takes about 12 hours (of a total 35ish), if its on time (its often multiple hours late). Even if it was never late and left every hour, it wouldnt be a very practical commute.

It is fun if you enjoy trains though! Take it if you have the time.

+1. I took it once, and it was a wonderful time. Jump for the business class seats, they aren't much more expensive and are quite nice.

But yes - absolutely terrible from a commuter perspective.

That should be SF, not SD.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com