Author: David Kutrosky

Important Update — Weekday Train Service Changes, Effective August 13, 2012

Capitol Corridor customers may have heard recent news reports about changes in the Capitol Corridor weekday train service levels. This blog post is to accurately confirm specific information so Capitol Corridor riders will be aware of the very latest service news.

Discontinuing Trains 518 and 553

Effective Monday, August 13, 2012 Trains 518 and 553 will be discontinued. This decision to reduce weekday service levels from 32 to 30 trains took months of careful consideration, but like other public transit systems, the CCJPA was faced with cost-effectiveness decisions that lead to this action.

We outlined our intention to reduce service in the CCJPA’s Business Plan published in January 2012 and adopted by the CCJPA Board in February 2012. This year, as we have for over 12 years, CCJPA staff and I boarded several trains in January 2012 to present the annual business plan and the related weekday service changes to the Capitol Corridor passengers. This outreach effort let those passengers know personally that we were discontinuing these trains.

To accommodate Train 518 riders, effective Monday, August 13 2012, an existing Davis to Sacramento Amtrak Thruway bus will be scheduled to begin its trip at Martinez. The bus will serve the Martinez and Suisun/Fairfield stations, as well as the current Davis and Sacramento stations and provide connections to San Joaquin train #702 to Bakersfield.

More About Train 553

In our new train schedule, you may notice that Train 553 will not be listed in the schedule. Train 553 is being renumbered to Train 551, this means the latest train out of Sacramento will still leave at 9:10PM. As we are merging two westbound trips (6:40pm and 7:40pm) into one train (#549) departing Sacramento at 7:10pm, our last trip out of Sacramento will be listed in Capitol Corridor’s train schedule as 551 at 9:10pm.

This is the first time in 20 years that we discontinued a train or reduced service, but changing from 32 to 30 trains per weekday will help CCJPA save approximately $1 million. These cost savings will be used to address steep increases in diesel fuel prices, while ensuring the continued operation of trains that have higher passenger counts.

Other Changes: Train numbers 520, 531, 549

Also effective Monday August 13, Capitol Corridor schedules for trains 520, 531, 549 (and again Train 551) will change as a result of the City of Sacramento’s track realignment project. The project will enable an additional train to be stored in Sacramento overnight, eliminating the need to operate an extra round-trip every day to move train sets to/from Oakland as we had to do when train storage space was limited. Therefore, several other trains have minor adjustments to provide better spacing between departures.

Eastbound changes:

• Train 520 will operate 10 minutes earlier.

Westbound changes:

• Train 531 will operate 10 minutes earlier.
• Train 549 will operate 30 minutes later.
• Train 551 will operate 90 minutes later (taking over slot currently used by train 553).

There will be no changes to weekend Capitol Corridor service (trains 720-751).

Sacramento Project Improves Your Safety

Speaking of the track relocation project, the four new station tracks will improve passenger safety because the new boarding platforms will provide grade- separated access to the trains. Passengers will never have to cross a track in order to reach their train. When the improvements are complete, new electronic signs will direct patrons to the proper boarding areas, and new canopies will protect the passengers from the elements on the walkways, ramps and boarding areas.

A new walkway will be put in service on August 13.  It is an extended walk from what riders are used to, so until you’re used to the new path, I’d suggest adding an extra 10-15 minutes to get to your train.

What began as a vision in 2003 has become reality. Starting today, April 16, 2012 Amtrak deployed electronic ticketing on the Capitol Corridor® and San Joaquin® routes. Similar to airline ticketing, intercity rail tickets can now be purchased and received at your home or the office.  We are thrilled to offer Amtrak’s enhanced eTicketing solution to our customers. Many of the features of Amtrak’s new onboard ticketing option were tested and developed in a pilot program Capitol Corridor conducted over a two-year period—kudos to Amtrak for developing this trial into a national ticketing system.
The Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority (CCJPA) has sought this solution since 2003 and we are proud of our contributions to the final national Amtrak program.  The CCJPA was so dedicated to an electronic ticket option that we launched our “Automated Ticketing Validation” (ATV) pilot program from 2009 to 2011. The ATV program used a mobile device to achieve a way to validate and scan passenger tickets on a moving train.  On the operation side, the CCJPA ATV system helped enhance passenger safety/security matters and strengthened revenue control measures by creating a passenger manifest list and ensuring proper and thorough onboard ticket validation and sales. In regards to customer service, we knew passengers would prefer the convenience of printing out tickets in their home or office.  As technology evolved, we knew riders would like to have the option to simply display an eTicket barcode to the conductor from a smartphone for a hassle-free ticket purchasing experience.
What Amtrak did was to “marry” efficiency with popular technology.  They took CCJPA’s core solutions and put it in the convenience of an iPhone.  Now they are in the process of training their 1,700 conductors on this endeavor and we applaud their efforts!
eTicketing Means More Flexibility
Amtrak’s news release states eTickets provide passengers more flexibility when making or changing reservations and eliminates the need to obtain traditional paper tickets.  Passengers also have the ability to print their reservations.  A receipt will be e-mailed to the passenger with the eTicket attached as a printable document.  Those passengers using their smartphones can present their eTicket to the conductor by simply opening the eTicket document from their e-mail to display the barcode for scanning. If a customer misplaces their eTicket, they can reprint the document to present onboard.  Passengers may also print their eTickets at Amtrak ticket offices and Quik-Trak™ kiosks.

Phases of the eTicketing Program
Initially, this pilot program will only issue “eTickets” for one-way and roundtrip travel on the Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin trains.  California Thruway Buses will join this pilot over the summer and passengers will continue to receive a conventional paper value ticket if they have purchased a Multi-Ride Ticket (such as a monthly or 10-ride ticket).
During the field pilot in California, only the Capitol Corridor and Amtrak California San Joaquin trains will begin using the new eTicketing system.  Connecting California Thruway Buses will follow suit with the first few bus routes becoming eTicket-ready in early summer.  Amtrak expects to convert the entire California Thruway bus system to eTicketing gradually, with the transition complete by late summer.