(The following story by Ross Farrow appeared on the News-Sentinel website on December 31.)
LODI, Calif. — With gasoline prices going way beyond the $3 mark in 2007, Oakdale residents Melody and Don Crandell decided to try riding Amtrak to Sacramento for the very first time.
And they were having the time of their lives, playing cards on a table with their friend Sonia Juarez, who is a veteran train rider.
The Crandells went to Sacramento on Sunday to pick up their 5-year-old grandson from Granite Bay, spend some time in Old Sacramento and return to Oakdale on the 4:30 p.m. train from the Sacramento station.
Others were headed to Sacramento all the way from Bakersfield and parts in between.
Ridership on the state-supported Amtrak San Joaquin Corridor service from Bakersfield to Sacramento, and from Bakersfield to Oakland, exceeded Caltrans’ expectations during November with a jump of 13.1 percent. The San Joaquin route increased its ridership from 69,450 in November 2006 to 78,577 in November 2007.
The San Joaquin line, along with two other routes in California, marked a large increase in ridership during the past year.
Whenever gasoline prices go up, so does Amtrak’s ridership, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.
“We worked very hard to make the trains more reliable,” Magliari said.
Sunday’s train arrived in Lodi three minutes late, although the sign near the boarding platform incorrectly indicated that the train was delayed an extra hour until 12:43 p.m.
A short time later, however, a whistle, followed by the roar of the Amtrak engine, signaled that it was coming at 11:37 a.m. Nevertheless, the train arrived in Sacramento at about 12:20 p.m. — 10 minutes early.
Sunday morning’s train was quite crowded. One rider, Robin Holm, took the longest trip — from Bakersfield to Sacramento — and then planned to transfer on a bus to Oroville. Others began their trip from Fresno, while two others boarded in Lodi for the trip to Sacramento, which was less than an hour.
“I love riding Amtrak,” Holm said. “It gets you out from behind the steering wheel.”
“Look at the beauty of the San Joaquin Valley,” Holm said, while enjoying the vineyards of Acampo from his seat by the window. “You can’t do that driving.”
From Lodi, the Amtrak route headed through some areas that can be seen from roads like Highway 99, Lower Sacramento Road and Galt’s Oldtown area. It goes through Elk Grove and parts of Sacramento, bypassing backyard views such as a yard full of bright yellow tractors, some of them on their sides. It also passes right alongside the campus of California State University, Sacramento.
“You see so many interesting things here,” said Noelle Lough, of Redding, who was returning home on Sunday after visiting her mother in Fresno. “It’s peeking in on people — people-watching.”
Melody Crandell was intrigued when she saw a homeless man under a trestle with a big table and chairs set, including a living room chair.
Amtrak goes only as far north as Sacramento, and since she doesn’t like bus travel, Lough’s husband was driving south from Redding to meet her at the Sacramento depot.
So what was Lough’s favorite view on the Amtrak ride?
Believe it or not, she said she enjoyed looking at the variety of graffiti up and down the Central Valley.
Tim Turner and Dave Hillman, who work for the California Department of Forestry, have taken Amtrak from their Fresno home for a decade or so. But on Sunday, they took the train to Sacramento for New Year’s Eve. Hillman said you can plug your laptop into an outlet and work at one of the tables while riding the train.
Hillman noted that quite a few Amtrak riders don’t have a car at all. One of them was a Lodi woman who declined to give her name. She said she takes the train to the Bay Area frequently, but on Sunday, she was headed to Sacramento to meet up with some friends.
Hillman said that for some reason, if you take the 6:30 a.m. train out of Fresno, you have to get off in Stockton and transfer onto a bus. Yet the 9 a.m. train out of Fresno goes straight through to Sacramento, he said.
While Melody and Don Crandell took their first Amtrak ride on Sunday, their friend, Sonia Juarez, also from Oakdale, is a veteran of train travel. She’s gone to Reno once, Emeryville, the Seattle area twice, and once to Missouri.
Juarez, who lives in Oakdale, enjoys riding the train through the snow on the way to Washington without having to drive through it, and she experienced a dust storm in New Mexico on her way home from Missouri.
“There are a lot of good people (on the train),” Juarez said.