Right on the rails

Zocalo columnist Joe Mathews and his family recently took a trip from Los Angeles to San Diego on Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner train. He nearly lost two of his children when they wormed their way through the crowded corridors to the dining car and he couldn’t follow. Aside from that, the trip was a success. And a reminder that, in spite of detractors, trains are highly popular in the Golden State. The problem with rail service here is that there isn’t enough of it, according to Mathews. And he says that the state’s planned bullet train may have its problems, but ridership probably won’t be one of them.

Surfliner image by Nick Chill