California’s Newest Train: Arrow 

There was also a scheme by GM to get rid of streetcar systems all over the US and LA was hit the hardest. They bought out the LA streetcar lines and shut them down to force people to buy their cars and to force cities to buy their buses

@@basictransportenthusiast4386 yap will aware just add goodyear tyre as well as they both where in on the dismatling of streetcars.

Post WW2, the Pacific Electric railroad was run down and needed a complete rebuild of track and replacement of equipment. Yet the fares were fixed by the state, leading to huge losses. In 1926 and 1949, ballot proposals in LA for a tax to fund transit were voted down. Pacific Electric couldn't raise passengers fares nor could they issue tax-free bonds for infrastructure improvements like the government. They had no choice but to sell out. And when I mean run down, I mean large portions of the system still had the original 90# track that was laid down decades prior. The signal system was archaic, requiring frequent stops for the conductor to exit the train and activate trackside waypoints. Plus the whole company was subject to property and income taxes, and union work rules, costing a fortune to operate.

@@derek20la thanks for that info. i knew a little bit of but not this much I new that pacific electric with a few other co's ran things but I didn't know it was this bad.

@@toshihitsu1989 A lot of it was just bad timing. If a couple PE lines could have lasted even a decade longer, more of the system could have been salvaged. A good example is MUNI rail in SF. In the past, there used to be many more lines but they were discontinued and replaced with busses... except for the few that had private right-of-way, like the J Judah. too curvey and narrow for a bus, and with no nearby road to use.

Me too! This line is nice, even if it isn’t used a lot yet. I also rode the new K Line in LA. Video coming soon!

It's crazy to look at maps of transit in US cities from 1990s compared to today. Definitely on the right track

Not to be a buzzkill, but considering it’s California, homeless people will likely be living on them within 4 years.

Great video. I too travel to see new or different trains. Love taking the "City of New Orleans to your hometown.

Yes

That’s great! Glad to hear it

Flirt trains are indeed very common here in Europe. Although here we don't have flashing frontlights, honnes and the typical bell sounding. Biu the sound when the door closes 😂

@@295g295 no, that’s the Trinity Railway Express (TRE). It still operates. Texrail goes from Fort Worth to grapevine and DFW airport but doesn’t continue to Dallas

Better putting 3 public restrooms onb9ard and extend the way la metro does.

Maybe we can cut early morning flights or freeway access while I'm sleeping too. Crazy to not run key commuter service over noise, certainly wouldn't do that for other modes.

@@jonw999999 The railroad tracks were there LONG before any of the houses and apartments in that area were. Since the late 1800's! I hate when people move near tracks and then complain about "noise". Well, too bad, you knew that ahead of time. They should just move if they don't like it.

I think so too. US companies can’t make the level of quality that European or Japanese companies can. If they build European trains in American factories, then I think it’s a win-win for everyone!

@@Thom-TRA It's not that US companies can't build them; they just got completely out of the passenger train business. And everyone else filled the void.

@Trains Are Awesome as someone who loves trains are strength is freight.

But we’re living in a time where more people are realizing the benefits of passenger rail. Freight railroads should not hold those developments hostage.

Here in Austria the are very rare and get mostly used by "Westbahn" who operate the Double Decker.

Wow, you even get to travel with the Giruno? Lucky!

@@Thom-TRA the Giruno should really get more of a chance to shine internationally - unfortunately no other country has ordered it yet!

@@mattherhorn290 the giruno feel‘s unnecessary when they already have the astoro and the icn. It would have made more sense to get more astoros and FV Dostos and only have two trains to worry about the fleet would look more unified. And sometimes the girunos can’t handle the high ridership so they have to use the FV Dosto. The plan for the Astoro and ICN are not known the only IC lines where the ICN is still used are the IC 5 and 51 the ICN on the 51 are going to be replaced by the Mouette so the IC Flirt and on the 5 by the FV Dosto when they can actually tilt witch at the moment doesn’t work. It was just something that stadler wanted to produce so they have a semi high speed train.

There’s nothing wrong with having a smaller fleet for a premium product. Many railways have that. For example, look up what a “Limited Express” is in Japan. Standardization should be the goal if it’s for economic reasons. It shouldn’t be a goal just in and of itself.

@@Thom-TRA Standardization is not good and creates something called a monopoly which is illegal in the United States.

Wait...You can get to big bear now? wow.

It's still a bus.

Technically, that station on E Street is NOT San Bernardino's central station. (They call it the "downtown" station, but it isn't really a hub). The main station is actually the old Santa Fe depot farther west on 3rd Street. That's where you catch all the other Metrolink trains to LA, Riverside, etc. Amtrak uses it too.

I wish I had some more time to check out Redlands. The trains certainly are an improvement to the existing metrolink trains. I wonder if longer trainsets could eventually replace some of the loco hauled trains. Especially if the network is integrated with HSR/Brightline West…

I understand there is some great historic architecture and a very nice downtown. The historic train station is particularly nice too.

It was a “chilly” 60° day haha. I’ll take that over the brutally cold winds we had here today! It was a fun trip, looking forward to go back to LA for a little longer in a few weeks.

That might be because California is huge, incredibly diverse in terms of its rail systems. Nowhere is this more evident than the Bay Area with BART, Caltrain, VTA, SMART, ACE, Capitol Corridor, and of course Muni, which by itself has three very different (and iconic) types of rail transit.

Well deserved. Second video. I like your positive vibes not everything is crummy about CA in fact we have a lot to look forward to. I like biking and PT. I'm subscribing. Also, mixing in the food is a nice touch we all get hungry on a journey.

@@1jamarks thanks for the comment! I appreciate feedback like this

@@1jamarks I agree, just like everywhere else, Cali is not perfect but amazing & diverse, although I hope he ventures out into more local cuisine. So far I've only seen fast food. haha ;)

@TNerd I've long suspected that a key reason for the support for the Arrow Line among elected officials is the idea that a rail link could be established to the warehouses around the airport.

The trains on the eBART are actually a slightly different model built by the same manufacturer, known as the GTW! I’d love to go to the Bay Area someday and ride all the trains there!

@@Thom-TRA BART is very dangerous after 7 pm so be careful

BART is a great entree to Bay Area rail. I ride it often, day and night, and find it easy and safe.

@@peteralbert1485 which route do you usually take? The ones pass Oakland and East Bay are like going to nightmare during night

@@TuanNguyen-uq8gz Berkeley to SF. Sometimes I ride from SF to Berkeley for work, Richmond for Amtrak, Walnut Creek and Berryessa to see family. All these rides go through Oakland and the East Bay, and I do notice the mood shifts after 9 pm. My recent 11:30 pm ride from San Jose was depressing: the cars almost empty except for a few people sleeping in the seats and two guys smoking pot at Lake Merritt station where I was transferring. But "depressing" isn't the same as "very dangerous." Maybe I've just been lucky. Sounds like something terrible happened to you on BART. I hope you are OK.

What I would give to take a ride on the North Shore Line. So sad it doesn’t exist anymore. Are there plans to expand rail service to Palm Springs? I know CA is investing and building a lot but I’m not up to date on all the different projects. Have actually been doing a little research on that front today.

@@Thom-TRA Sorry for not replying sooner. The only service from Palm Springs to or from Los Angeles is Amtrak. It is, I believe 4-5 days a week and the arrival times in Palm Springs are in the early AM hours like 1 or 2 AM. Not very useful. In order to have commuter service, they will have to add a third track in many places. Environmental and air pollution regulations require extensive study. Congress recently passed funding for the study of this new service. That will take a couple of years. The earliest we can expect actual service is about 8 years out.

@@SteveInPalmSprings Sunset Limited Amtrak runs 3 times a week. PSP to LA in the middle of the night.

Yep, drove past the Stadler factory recently and saw the new KISS trains for Caltrain!

I would love to see all those improvements!

Well, you did a great job

Thanks! It helps that I speak German haha

Looking forward to Orange Empire Railway Museum extending their museum track a couple blocks to the relatively new Perris Metrolink station for a cross-platform transfer, the museum platform is already built as part of that Metrolink station just the museum tracks are missing... take the train to the train museum!

This line was more Omnitrans incompetence than Metrolink expansion. The San Bernardino County transit agency couldn't complete the project, leading to Metrolink (a 5 county regional rail district) to take over operations.

@@derek20la There had been talk about Metrolink extending to Redlands for over 20 years. I first heard about it back around 1999 or 2000. As far as I know, it was always going to be under Metrolink and I had never heard anything about Omnitrans being involved.

That track has been abandoned for so many years and I have NEVER seen a train on it. I'm actually going to ride the Arrow train tomorrow and it's going to be so weird and amazing to ride that route...especially the part on Redlands Blvd!

Interesting!

@@Thom-TRA Also, it is not pronounced as a word, but the letters each said sequentially. E.S.R.I.

@@conncr the train staff said Esri so I just followed them

Hey, glad to help! Tell me about the presentation haha

I hope you have a really good trip! You’re welcome!

Thanks for the comment!

I’d love to ride the Sprinter. Unfortunately the train line to Oceanside is currently closed, so I’d have to fly to San Diego! Which I may do someday of course.

It would be great if HSR could connect all those places. I’ve also heard that Arrow might be extended to form a loop?

@@Thom-TRA, Arrow uses the Redlands Subdivision that originally belonged to the Santa Fe Railroad. Santa Fe operated a regional service in southern California that was called the "Kite-Shaped Track." The kite was formed by a lopsided circle-eight with two loops, a big one from L.A. to San Bernardino via Claremont and Riverside and a small one from Redlands to San Bernardino via Highland. The smaller one is probably the loop to which you are referring. Arrow could be extended northeastward another mile, perhaps, but the right of way for the rest of the original small loop is largely missing. Part of that area the S.B. County Transportation Authority has studied in order to reach Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains, and the agency has determined that a cog railway would be the best mode. Other smart options for an extension of Arrow include downtown Riverside and U.C., Riverside/Perris via some of the abandoned rights of way in Highgrove. San Bernardino and Los Angeles used to be the two hubs of the Pacific Electric "Red Cars," which were the largest trolley system in the world.

Hoping LAX Peoplemover will actually open in 2024. At this time, it seems possible. I'm certainly looking forward to it. But the weak link is that the Metro light rail lines do not run 24/7 like the airport seems to. So people would still have to drive to the outer parking lot, and many people will just drive on into the terminal area to drop off and pick up passengers.

I’d really like to ride the Sprinter someday. Their schedule is not affected by the line closure, right?

@@Thom-TRA - Absolutely not. I'm happy to report that ridership on the Surfliner service remains impressively strong. There is even a regular Surfliner service operating between Oceanside and San Diego while service remains suspended between Oceanside and San Juan Capistrano.

Except the Arrow DMU is FRA compliant. Sprinter is, AFAIK, not and has to operate with time-segregation away from Freight Trains.

@@erik_griswold- I didn't know the FLIRT is FRA compliant. Im a little doubtful, even if you say it is. Just compare it to a Metrolink train, and I think you'd rather not be in the FLIRT during a collision. However, you are correct that the Siemens Desiro used by Sprinter is essentially an LRV.

Thanks for commenting! It’s a great train, i enjoyed riding.

It’s a great little train, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

You should ride it, it’s a fun experience!

It was a fun trip! I got to ride some other trains in the LA area as well, like the new k-line!

And like the name suggests, it‘s more comfortable (at least the Nah SH one).

What you call the CHSR, most Californians call the Train to Nowhere. Many people like the idea of high-speed rail between L.A. and the Bay Area. But this program seems to be a never-ending disaster. In my opinion, they're doing it all wrong. Funding started with a ballot measure for voters to approve a bond for just half the estimated amount needed. So I voted no, but I got outvoted by people who seemingly favored a half-funded project. So I also call it the half-baked train project. With skyrocketing costs, I should probably call it the one-tenth-baked project. I don't expect it to be complete in my lifetime as a rail line, and I certainly don't expect it to be a fully maglev HSR line for decades after all the tracks are laid. At this time, you can take Amtrak from downtown L.A. to the Bay Area. I hear it's a very scenic ride up the coast.

I’m looking forward to CA HSR too 😊 Were you Paly or Gunn?

@@ezyryder11 Cubberley H. S. (1974)

@@marcelmoulin3335 ah, Gunn 2010 for me. Very different times. Wishing you well.

@@ezyryder11 Thank you. Let's hope that CHSR comes to fruition... soon. I send you warm greetings from the Netherlands.

You’re welcome!

Always nice indeed! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment!

You should! It’s a short but fun little trip. And you were in college the year I was born lol. Thanks for the comment!

@@Thom-TRA Haha...that makes me feel my age! Trust me, it doesn't feel like 20 years ago....time and life just fly right by. San Diego just opened their new Blue Line light rail extension, which was also in the works for a while. A ride on that is also on my list.

@@MainTrack I want to go back to California again and ride so much more. The Bay Area is top of my US bucket list.

The snow surprised me!

San Francisco is the #1 place on my American bucket list. I really hope to go there someday soon.

@@Thom-TRA and the new Van Ness BRT (I do realize this is more about Trains though). SF has no shortage of unique rail transit though.

It certainly is!

Take into consideration I rode these trains on a daily basis during my childhood. This was kind of a nostalgia trip for me.

You’re welcome!

Thanks! You should, it’s very nice. Next week, Metra NorthCentral Service!

@@Thom-TRA YES! I've been waiting for that for ages.

I like trainsets a lot too. I grew up riding them and I don’t think I rode a locomotive-hauled train until in my teenage years. There will be some more FLIRTs in North America! TEXRail in Fort Worth has them. And the eBart in the Bay Area uses Stadler trains. And in the future there will be FLIRTs on the Silver Line in Dallas, the O-Train in Ottawa, and Amtrak California. Double-deck KISS trains for Caltrain. Hopefully there will be even more!

I think they're a huge pain in the ears. I'm autistic so it may have to do with that but that BEE-DAA-BEE-DAA-BEE-DAA Siren going off not just every time the doors may open but literally every time *any* door on the train is opened in all seriousness discourage me from using those trains. As this Siren for some fucking reason becomes more and more common (probably because those who decide to implement it never, ever would set their feet on a train) that honestly starts being a good argument to get a car instead..

Welcome to the USA…

pretty sure owner lives in Redlands.

Running in Eastern England a couple of years now, I ride them from time to time (as well as the 10 car FLIRT EMU expresses), and indeed they are awesome and huge improvement in passenger experience on those lines (capacity too--the Bittern line to Sheringham went from a 1/2 car DMU which could be standing room only to 3/4 car FLIRT, no standing anymore) . Triggered quite a lot of station refurbishment too (Sheringham pretty much got a complete rebuild to take 4 car trains). Wales soon I think. Bittern line can be a fun rail fan day trip from London--changing at Sheringham from very modern trains to heritage railway (North Norfolk "Poppy" line--steam or their early BR diesel DMU--looks like Daisy from the "Thomas" books). With an overnight in the area, then you can also see some military vehicles (Muckleborough collection--taxi or bus from Sheringham), and get some coastal views (climb the Beeston Bump to see the WW2 Observer corp site), or squeeze in a trip on the Mid Norfolk Heritage railway or a narrow gauge, or see traction/showmans engines and a Wurlitzer at Thursford (longer taxi ride needed from Holt for that one, or careful bus planning and some walking).

Thank you so much!

You’re welcome!

The FLIRTs for Ottawa look really cool!

I love the bell and horn in the US though. It wouldn’t be an American train without it.

@@Thom-TRA My neirodivergent brain can't cope very well with that sort of noise; I even mute videos like this when a train approaches or departs; that *ding, ding, ding* bell drives me insane.

Danke schön!

Thank you! What a nice thing to hear on a Saturday morning :)

You’re welcome!

I hope the frequencies go up too. Sometimes it’s even 2 hours between trains right now.