In Transit: Amtrak's Future In California

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Amtrak reports that overall demand for passenger rail is soaring as yearly ridership totals approach pre-pandemic levels. But in California, the story is different. Popular west coast lines are losing riders and remain challenged by underinvestment and rules that give track priority to freight trains. In addition, increasingly powerful storms and rising seas threaten Amtrak’s infrastructure: Southern California’s Pacific Surfliner has repeatedly suspended service for emergency repairs. As part of Forum’s In Transit series, we look at the future of Amtrak in California. Guests: Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Program at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, UC Berkeley School of Law; host, the Climate Break podcast Tom Zoellner, English professor, Chapman University; editor-at-large, LA Review of Books; author, "Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World -from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:34.2	Thank you. From KQED. From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
0:53.3	Coming up on forum, Amtrak says that ridership nationwide is approaching pre-pandemic levels,
0:58.5	but the story is different in California, where some popular lines are losing riders because
1:02.7	of service problems, and where climate change threatens Amtrak's infrastructure.
1:08.0	No rail corridors feeling this more than the Pacific surfliner, the train
1:11.6	that skirts the scenic Southern California coast. Still, as a greener way to travel with great
1:17.5	views, can Amtrak be bolstered in the state, even expand it? Do you love riding the train? Tell us why,
1:24.7	as part of Forum's In Transit series, join us.
1:41.1	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. The second most popular Amtrak corridor in the U.S. is in California, the Pacific Surfliner, which runs for some 350 miles from
1:46.4	San Diego to the central coast. But erosion and landslides from storms and sea level rise
1:52.3	have shut down the route repeatedly in the last few years and threaten its long-term survival.
	...

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