Transit Travel - A true story!

I was invited to CalACT in Santa Barbara last week to give two presentations, one on our activity and experiences using Social Media and the second to present our Learn to Ride CityBus Travel Training program and how we’ve been able to adapt it to any and all community members interested in learning how to ride our fixed route bus service.

I planned to travel from Santa Rosa to Santa Barbara with a co-worker in our department hybrid car. Since he wasn’t traveling back on the same day I wanted to, I became determined on get back on transit. After all that’s what we do!
I’ve always wanted to take Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train. This particular train would leave Santa Barbara around noon and arrive in Emeryville (the closest depot) after 10:00 at night. Since I didn’t want to have someone pick me up and since I didn’t want to get home that late, I decided to look at other options, focusing on the train for the major part of my trip.

I decided to take Amtrak’s bus from Santa Barbara to Bakersfield, transfer to the Amtrak route 713 train to Martinez and take another Amtrak bus from Martinez to Santa Rosa.

Here’s how the day went:
The first part began with a 6:05am bus trip from Santa Barbara to Bakersfield. There were two women getting on the bus headed to Salinas. Both were well prepared for travel; comfortable shoes, layered clothing, snacks…etc.

It was dark when we pulled out of Santa Barbara with just me and the driver on the coach. Turns out he really is a surfer at heart though he’s been driving buses for 30 years to support his surfing “addiction.” He was more than happy to point out the best surfing along the central coast: Rincon, Little Rincon and of course, The Rincon. We did see surfers and dolphin! The driver also worked part time as a wine tour bus driver and special charter driver, so we discussed the quality of Central Coast wines along with my favorites from Sonoma and Lake Counties.

As we made stops in Carpentaria, Ventura, Oxnard, Santa Paula and finally Fillmore, we picked up an additional 6 passengers. It was fun to travel through these towns and see what types of transit facilities they have to offer. Oxnard in particular has a very nice, new transit depot complete with a small snack bar that served all types of burgers, sandwiches, hot coffee and pre-packaged snack items.
The trip took us along Highway 126 through a stunning agricultural valley. Then up over the Grapevine and into Bakersfield. All-in-all the trip was about 3 ½ hours and completely enjoyable.

The train was waiting for us when we arrived in Bakersfield. After a short wait we were allowed to board. As this was my first train trip I was totally excited and pretty clueless. I headed upstairs thinking the view would be better, though not on purpose, this was the correct thing today as the seats on the lower level are reserved for passengers who can’t climb the stairs.

This Amtrak train was very nice and roomy; there is an electrical outlet right next to me and a handy pull down table. At first I thought the train whistle was really charming… however, because the engineer kept blowing it, it did becoming annoying. Next time I’ll travel in one of the cars further away from the engine. For this trip I was in the second car.

Our first stop was the town of Wasco. It was a really quick stop, just long enough for me to enjoy the peace and quiet, nope, didn’t miss that whistle!
Just outside of Wasco we went past a really pretty field of mixed flowers!! I later found out that Wasco is a major flower provider, that 55% of all the roses grown in the United States are grown in or around Wasco.

Second Stop – Corcoran. Lovely depot, I have to admit I’ve lived in California all of my life and don’t think I’ve ever heard of Corcoran. Corcoran is most famous as the site of the California State Prison, Corcoran, which is home to a number of notable inmates such as Charles Manson, and Juan Corona. The conductor was funny: “Corcoran will be a short stop, so unless you want to spend the afternoon in Corcoran, don’t step off the train!” Nope, sorry, don’t think I’d like to spend too much time in Corcoran.

The entire train trip was approximately 6 hours. It was very interesting to see the San Joaquin Valley, the agriculture, the small towns, the homes and businesses along the way.

When we got to Fresno, I ventured to the dining car. The ride was a bit bumpy, so I waited until the train was stopped. There was a nice menu of pre-packaged food items at what I thought were reasonable prices. I selected a chicken Caesar salad and Diet Pepsi and headed back to my seat. Other than sightseeing, I spent some time on my laptop and even got a little cat nap. Ok, I finally did get used to the train’s whistle!

Arriving in Martinez, it was very easy to find the correct bus to take me on the last leg of my trip to Santa Rosa. Once we were underway the driver announced that Santa Rosa would be the first stop before continuing up highway 101 to McKinleyville. So, non-stop to Santa Rosa! Good news!

As on the first bus ride out of Santa Barbara, I was sitting in the front row across from the driver. I like this spot; you can see out of the large front windshield as well as the window on my right. Being in this location also allows you to hear any communications the bus driver has with the main office.

We had come to a stop at the signal light on Sears Point Road (Highway 37) and Arnold Drive and, once the light turned green, our bus seemed to have trouble getting back up to speed. The driver radioed in that he thought the “tranny” was slipping and requested a different bus meet us in Santa Rosa for the continuation of the trip. The replacement bus arranged, we continued to Lakeville Highway and in to Petaluma, coming to a stop at the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Casa Grande Road. And that was the end of the bus ride, stuck on the road in Petaluma. Although the driver radioed in that the bus wasn’t going anywhere, his exact words were “Send a hook (evidently a code word for a tow truck) and a bus!” It was 5:00pm, I’d been traveling for 11 hours and the LAST thing I felt like doing was waiting. Fortunately for me a very good friend of mine just happened to live about a half a mile from where we were broken down. I called him and fortunately, again, he was just getting home from work. So, the last unexpected leg of my big transit travel day was in a convertible Mercedes-Benz!

As anyone who has ever traveled anywhere knows, there can definitely be challenges. So would I take the train or bus again? Yes, of course I would. I enjoyed everything I saw; the buses and train were comfortable and I was able to travel on the day I wanted to. Did I learn a lot? You bet! Be prepared – comfortable shoes, and layered clothes, something to do (book, laptop etc.), snacks or some money to buy them along the way, then sit back, relax and enjoy the journey!!

Now it’s your turn. If you’ve had an entertaining or adventurous transit trip, we’d love to hear from you. Where did you go? What did you notice? What did you learn? What was funny? What was challenging?
Thanks, and see you on the rails!