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Announcing OTOL Pacific Coast RailFest (PCRF) 2016


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#11 pennyk

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 08:36 PM

With regard to the shortened dwell time in San Diego, I am not familiar enough with the station and boarding logistics to offer a suggestion.  I really would like to travel to San Diego, but do not want to risk missing a connection (either in San Diego or in LAX).

 

If Steve, Alan and/or Chris (or anyone else) are planning to do the San Diego run, I would really like to hear your thoughts.  



#12 steve4031

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 09:03 PM

Right now mike and I are planning to spend the night in san Diego to lesson impact of high hotel rates in LA.

Iirc bills time keeping records show the san Diego trains consistently operating 20 to 30 minutes late. This is going to be stressful with a tight connection.

In regards to retuning from san Diego on a later train that would most likely be ok.

The problem with this is that if there is a big delay, iirc most people have booked san-lax-chi as one reservation and would not be protected under the worst case scenario.

If it was me and I.used an agr redemption I would short turn in Solana beach. If I had a paid ticket I might try to kink the bookings if I used the later train.

#13 steve4031

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 09:05 PM

Mike and I are using 20k redemption for lax-pdx-chi. We decided to spend Tuesday night in lax to ensure make the CS.

#14 KevinKorell

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 09:11 PM

And I realize too that if we did remain in San Diego until #579 (departure 1:36 pm), lunch comes into play since we originally would have been eating aboard #777 on the way back.  Has to be quick though.

 

Moving on to Seattle, I still had some XX:XX unknowns for the transit riding there, since there is no exact published timetable for the First Hill Streetcar.  The Occidental Mall western endpoint looks to be a couple of blocks walk from King Street Station.   I am electronically peciling in times in the afternoon and guessing how long the trip is until I can find out more definitively how long the trips take.  The big question too is when the westbound Empire Builder will show up in Seattle with most of us aboard.   If we're on time, we'll have plenty of time to spend, and perhaps can also ride LINK down to SeaTac Airport and back. If we arrive several hours late, we still have the afternoon/evening hours to do University LINK and First Hill Streetcar.  The times shown now are more than likely not final, but at least there is something to start with.  We might just need to play it by ear that day based on when we get into town.



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#15 KevinKorell

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Posted 14 May 2016 - 09:16 PM

Steve, I only added the San Diego option recently, as we decided it would bring the most bang for the buck as far as earning precious AGR tier qualifying points.  So I don't think anyone would have booked Pacific Surfliners on points redemption, unless like you this had been planned in advance way back before January 24th when the AGR rules changed.  I believe that those who have booked on points the trip starts at Los Angeles, not San Diego.  Thus there would be no guaranteed connections.  There are obviously risks involved with both choices.



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#16 Lightning

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Posted 15 May 2016 - 07:19 PM

 

Moving on to Seattle, I still had some XX:XX unknowns for the transit riding there, since there is no exact published timetable for the First Hill Streetcar.  The Occidental Mall western endpoint looks to be a couple of blocks walk from King Street Station.   I am electronically peciling in times in the afternoon and guessing how long the trip is until I can find out more definitively how long the trips take.  The big question too is when the westbound Empire Builder will show up in Seattle with most of us aboard.   If we're on time, we'll have plenty of time to spend, and perhaps can also ride LINK down to SeaTac Airport and back. If we arrive several hours late, we still have the afternoon/evening hours to do University LINK and First Hill Streetcar.  The times shown now are more than likely not final, but at least there is something to start with.  We might just need to play it by ear that day based on when we get into town.

Kevin:  I did promise to get you a time frame for the FHSC.  I got "sidetracked", but will do when I return next week from a visit to NJ. As I think I stated in a previous e-mail, it is good enough to do the FHSC one way, then, at the Broadway terminus, to hop on board Link, whose Capitol Hill station is literally at the same location.  Might as well take full advantage of the connectivity where it is so obvious.


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#17 KevinKorell

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Posted 19 May 2016 - 11:47 AM

So there now has been another itinerary edit for Monday 7/18 as we seem to have gravitated towards Solana Beach and a resulting shorter day rather than dealing with tight turnarounds and sweating missing the Southwest Chief.  The itinerary now shows times for Solana Beach, as well as lunch taking place there (or optionally you could wait until we board 777 at Solana Beach and eat on the train).  I will work on a list of places to eat so you know what kind of choices you will have there.  It also appears that the area is walkable, with the namesake beach several blocks west of the station.   And the Solana Beach choice saves me the "trouble" (really fun trouble) of figuring out a quick San Diego Trolley circuit to kill time between trains had we chosen to remain in San Diego and take 579.



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#18 KevinKorell

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Posted 22 May 2016 - 04:54 PM

Proud to say that all elements we were waiting for are now in place. Seattle's First Hill Streetcar and University LINK extension are in place.  Portland's Orange Line and the full Portland Streetcar loops across Tilikum Crossing, Bridge of the People opened this past Fall, Los Angeles Metro Gold Line extension from Pasadena to Azusa opened in early March, and now as of Friday 5/20 the Metro Expo Line extension from Culver City to Santa Monica is in service.



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#19 KevinKorell

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Posted 30 May 2016 - 01:07 AM

As soon as Mark does his preview trip in Seattle, I can then be more final about the resulting itinerary. He has recommended we ride the First Hill Line in only one direction, given that the one trip will take seemingly forever. It does feed to a LINK light rail station headed in the correct direction anyhow. Since the streetcars follow the same streets through Seattle in both directions, nothing new would be seen by retracing our tracks back to the International District. We have the luxury of a transfer into the LINK at Capitol Hill, and then only need to ride 1 more station to UW. The other question is, when we get to the UW end of the line, which is underground, do you wish to come out of the system and up to street level to see the neighborhood, or just go back onto LINK to head in the other direction? The difference would be a few minutes more or less that had to be programmed into our itinerary.

For Portland, I think the circular Streetcar Loops, while each one will bring us back to exactly where we started, do run mostly on one-way street couplets, so the scenery from each would be a little different. I therefore think we should do both. As the itinerary now calls for, we have zero official transit riding on Thursday evening after we arrive on the Cascades 513. We could possibly do one of the Loops in 1 direction that evening, which would then save some time the next morning, Friday, when we would still have to ride MAX Orange Line, and the other Streetcar Loop we didn't do the night before. But I would like consensus on this from our participants as well. Doing what was just suggested does save time on Friday, however it may require purchasing another Day Pass for Thursday to cover this trip as well as if any are needed to get to & from wherever we choose to have dinner.
 
Note too that if your hotel is east of the Willamette River and you've brought your luggage aboard the streetcar, AND we do this after dinner and you don't mind not completing the loop to where we started from, then a Streetcar trip might take you within a block or two of your hotel and thus you would not need to return to downtown to catch MAX Light Rail.

I await your responses as to what would be the most prudent and enjoyable options for you. Let's review the questions again so you don't glance over them and think they don't apply to you.
  • In Seattle, do you want to spend time at the UW LINK endpoint station seeing the area at the surface, or just reverse direction underground and quickly leave the area?
  • In Seattle, are you comfortable with riding the First Hill Streetcar in only one direction (from Occidental to Capitol Hill - Broadway/Denny) or would you like to ride it the other way as well?
  • In Portland, would you be willing to do one of the Streetcar loops on Thursday evening, before or after dinner depending on time? This costs us more ultimately, but it saves time on Friday morning when we also have to get to lunch and do one of the loops and the MAX Orange Line to Milwaukie.... all before getting to Union Station well in advance of our Coast Starlight departure.


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#20 steve4031

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Posted 30 May 2016 - 10:40 AM

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes. Prefer after dinner so I can get to hotel to drop off luggage.



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