The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is a passenger train service serving the communities on the coast of

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

between

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

and

San Luis Obispo ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

. The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is Amtrak's third-busiest service (exceeded in ridership only by the ''

Northeast Regional The ''Northeast Regional'' is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the ''NortheastDirect'', ''Acela Regional'', or ''Regional''. It is Amtrak's busie ...

'' and ''

Acela The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship passenger train service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermedia ...

''), and the busiest outside the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

. Like all regional trains in California, the ''Pacific Surfliner'' is operated by a

joint powers authority A joint powers authority (JPA) is an entity permitted under the laws of some U.S. states, whereby two or more public authorities (e.g. local governments, or utility or transport districts), not necessarily located in the same state, may jointly e ...

. The LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency is governed by a board that includes eleven elected representatives from the six counties the train travels through. LOSSAN contracts with the

Orange County Transportation Authority The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) is the transportation planning commission for Orange County, California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. OCTA is responsible for funding and implementing transit and capital projects for ...

to provide day-to-day management of the service and with contracts with

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

to operate the service and maintain the rolling stock (locomotives and passenger cars). The

California Department of Transportation The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

(Caltrans) provides the funding to operate the service and also owns all of the locomotives and some of the rolling stock; with Amtrak owning the rest. Portions of the line in southern Orange County have been suspended four times between 2022 and 2024 due to

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

Operations

The San Luis Obispo–San Diego trip takes approximately 8 hours, 52 minutes at an average speed of ; maximum track speed is . Much of the ''Pacific Surfliner''s scenic route follows the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas North America Countries on the western side of North America have a Pacific coast as their western or south-western border. One of th ...

, with the tracks being less than from the ocean in some locations. Trains travel inland through expansive farmlands in

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

and industrial areas in the

Los Angeles Basin The Los Angeles Basin is a sedimentary Structural basin, basin located in Southern California, in a region known as the Peninsular Ranges. The basin is also connected to an wikt:anomalous, anomalous group of east–west trending chains of mountai ...

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

, and parts of Orange County. , the ''Pacific Surfliner'' operates ten daily round trips between Los Angeles and San Diego. Five round trips continue north of Los Angeles: two run all the way to

, and three run to Goleta (near Santa Barbara), with

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...

motorcoach service over the rest of the route to San Luis Obispo. Thruway motorcoach connections are also available to San Pedro; to

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

and

Indio Indio may refer to: Places * Indio, Bovey Tracey, an historic estate in Devon, England * Indio, California, a city in Riverside County, California, United States People with the name * Indio (musician), Canadian musician Gordon Peterson * Índi ...

; and to San Jose or

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

(with connections to ''

Capitol Corridor The ''Capitol Corridor'' is a passenger train route in Northern California operated by Amtrak between San Jose, California, San Jose, in the Bay Area, and Auburn, California, Auburn, in the Sacramento Valley. The route is named after the two ...

'' trains) via Paso Robles. Because the stations at the ends of the line do not have wyes to turn equipment, trains are operated in push-pull mode. The

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

is at the rear of the train, pushing the train from Goleta, San Luis Obispo or San Diego to Los Angeles. At Los Angeles, the train reverses at the station, and the locomotive pulls the train to San Diego or Goleta/San Luis Obispo, respectively. Run-through tracks are under construction at Union Station in Los Angeles to ease congestion and reduce time spent waiting to enter or depart the station. The ongoing North Coast Corridor project plans to increase rail capacity on the route of the Surfliner in North San Diego County.

LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency

Local agencies along with the host railroads formed the Los Angeles–San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency (LOSSAN) in 1989. The ''Pacific Surfliner'' is operated by Amtrak under the

Amtrak California Amtrak California is a brand name used by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Division of Rail for three state-supported Amtrak regional rail routes in Californiathe ''Capitol Corridor'', the ''Pacific Surfliner'', and the ...

brand with funding provided by the

(Caltrans). Serious discussions were held in 2009 regarding the local agencies administering the service rather than Caltrans. California Senate Bill No. 1225, passed in 2014, allowed LOSSAN to amend the joint powers agreement and become the sponsor of state-supported intercity passenger rail service in the corridor. In mid-2015, LOSSAN assumed oversight for the Surfliner. They are also working with Caltrans to assess rail operations from Los Angeles to San Diego to develop better connections, close gaps in the schedule, and optimize the assets of the railroad.

History

The route is the successor of the '' San Diegan,'' a

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

–San Diego service operated since 1938 by the

Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Railroad classes, Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight tra ...

. It had been one of the Santa Fe's premier routes until Amtrak took over operations in 1971. Initially there were three daily trips, but the schedule was expanded to six round trips during the 1970s with funding from the state of California. In 1988 the service was extended to Santa Barbara to provide the Central Coast with an additional train to Los Angeles, followed in 1995 with one trip a day going all the way to San Luis Obispo. To better reflect the route's extent, it was renamed the ''Pacific Surfliner'' in 2000. The route is named after the Surf Line, which now comprises the route's busiest section from Los Angeles to San Diego. A stop at Old Town Transit Center was added in 2004. Stops at Orange and Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo were added in 2007 but dropped in 2012. On October 7, 2013, stops were added at Coaster stations at Carlsbad Village, Carlsbad Poinsettia,

Encinitas Encinitas (Spanish language, Spanish for "Small Oaks") is a beach city in the North County (San Diego area), North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. Located in Southern California, it is approximately north of San Di ...

and Sorrento Valley. The Carlsbad Poinsettia and Encinitas stops were dropped on October 9, 2017, due to low ridership. The Carlsbad Village and Sorrento Valley stops were dropped on October 8, 2018, due to changes with the cross-ticketing arrangement with Coaster. A 13th daily round trip was added on October 14, 2019. On September 30, 2022, all rail service between and was suspended due to

under the track in

San Clemente San Clemente (; Spanish for " St. Clement" ) is a coastal city in southern Orange County, California, United States. It was named in 1925 after the Spanish colonial island (which was named after a Pope from the first century). Located in the O ...

. Emergency repairs were expected to take at least 90 days. Full ''Pacific Surfliner'' service resumed on April 17, 2023. Service south of Irvine was again suspended on April 27 due to further erosion at Casa Romantica. Service resumed on May 27, 2023. Service was suspended again on June 5 due to continued erosion at Casa Romantica and resumed on July 19. Service was suspended on January 25, 2024, due to a landslide at San Clemente. The state declared an emergency on February 1, allowing the

to access emergency funding. Limited service through the landslide area resumed on March 6, 2024, followed by full service on March 25. In January 2025, LOSSAN was awarded a $27 million federal grant that will fund restoration of the 11th, 12th, and 13th daily round trips, resuming pre-pandemic frequency. The 11th and 12th round trips were expected to resume in March 2025, followed by the 13th in November.

Route

The ''Pacific Surfliner'' runs on track owned by several private railroads and public agencies: *

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

( Coast Line): San Luis Obispo – Moorpark * Southern California Regional Rail Authority: Moorpark – Los Angeles *

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three Transcontinental railroad, transcontine ...

: Los Angeles – Fullerton * Southern California Regional Rail Authority: Fullerton – Orange County/San Diego County line *

North County Transit District The North County Transit - San Diego Railroad (NCTD) is the agency responsible for public transportation in Northern San Diego County, California. The agency manages the COASTER commuter rail service between Oceanside and San Diego, the SPRIN ...

: Orange County/San Diego County line – San Diego

Stations

Entire route is located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. , , and stations were previously served under the "Rail 2 Rail" reciprocal pass program with Coaster, while and were served under a similar program with Metrolink.

Rolling stock

The ''Pacific Surfliner'' uses push-pull trainsets with a diesel locomotive at one end and a cab car at the other. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a reduction in service from ten trainsets operating 27 daily trains to seven trainsets operating 20 daily trains. Trainsets used for regular service are composed from a fleet of 52 bi-level Surfliner coaches (39 owned by Amtrak and 13 by

Caltrans The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an Executive (government), executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the Government of California#State agencies, cabinet-level California State Tran ...

), plus nine leased Amtrak Superliner long-distance coaches modified for push-pull operation. These Superliners are called flex cars, as they can be used for additional business class or coach seating, depending on the demand. A typical six-car set has a business class car; one Superliner car; two coach cars; a coach/café car with food sales on the lower level; and a coach/baggage/cab car equipped with coach seating, a checked baggage space on the lower level, and engineer's operating cab. LOSSAN has expressed interest in acquiring bi-level cars from a variety of sources, such as purchasing Surfliner and Superliner cars from Amtrak, as well as receiving bi-level cars from other Amtrak California services. The Surfliner cars were introduced in 2000–02, and were designed specifically to handle the demands of the nation's third-busiest rail line. They replaced the California Cars which had been introduced on the ''San Diegan'' in 1996, and had been fraught with problems in the latter part of the 1990s. A dedicated fleet of 16 Caltrans-owned

Siemens Charger The Siemens Charger is a family of diesel-electric/ dual-mode passenger locomotives designed and manufactured by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. There are five variants of the Charger, tailored for different operators and types ...

locomotives began entering service in late 2018. The Chargers replaced a fleet of 15 Amtrak-owned

EMD F59PHI The EMD F59PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division from 1988 to 1994. A variant, the F59PHI, was produced from 1994 to 2001. The F59PH was originally built for GO Transit commuter opera ...

locomotives, which were sold to

Metra Metra is the primary commuter rail system in the Chicago metropolitan area serving the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs via the Union Pacific Railroad, BNSF Railway, and other railroads. The system operates 243 train station, stati ...

in 2019. The Surfliner cars and Charger locomotives (and previously the F59PHI locomotives) are painted in a blue and silver livery that is unique to the ''Pacific Surfliner''. Additional Amtrak-owned cars are added (up to 12-car consists) during periods of high demand, including

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

, the

San Diego County Fair The San Diego County Fair is an annual fair held in Del Mar, California. It is held every summer at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Established in 1880, the fair is the longest running event in San Diego County, California, San Diego County. History The ...

, events at the

Del Mar Racetrack The Del Mar Fairgrounds is an event venue in Del Mar, California. It hosts the annual San Diego County Fair. The venue sits on a property along the Pacific Ocean coastline. It includes the Del Mar Racetrack, built in 1936 by the Del Mar Thoroug ...

, and after the 2018 Southern California mudflows closed

Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drum ...

. Additionally, in June 2024, seven Caltrans-owned Comet IB coaches, alongside two

Non-Powered Control Units A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK, Ireland, Australia and India) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or t ...

(former

EMD F40PH The EMD F40PH is a four-axle B-B diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in several variants from 1975 to 1992. Intended for use on Amtrak's short-haul passenger routes, it became the backbone of Amtrak's ...

locomotives rebuilt into cab-baggage cars) leased from Amtrak, entered service on the ''Pacific Surfliner''. The Comets and the NPCUs were previously used on the '' San Joaquins'' until being displaced by

Siemens Venture Siemens Venture is a type of locomotive-hauled passenger railroad car built by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. The cars are derived from the Siemens Viaggio Comfort cars used in Europe, with adaptations for North American operat ...

coaches. One NPCU was soon returned to the ''San Joaquins'' to allow an additional Venture trainset to enter service. However, the other NPCU and the Comets continue to serve the ''Pacific Surfliner'', hauled by a GE P42DC or B32-8WH locomotive. File:Surfliner SC44 2022 Los Angeles.jpg, A Pacific Surfliner

locomotive at L.A. Union Station in 2022. File:Amtrak Pacific Surfliner - Pacific Business Class.JPG, Lower-level seating on a "Pacific Business Class" car in 2012 File:566 Pacific Surfliner, Oceanside, 2016-09-12, 2. Amtrak Coachclass 000.jpg, A Superliner car used in 2016 File:Pacific Surfliner lounge car.jpg, Interior of the lounge car in 2025

References

Notes

External links

* *
Los Angeles–San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency (LOSSAN)Amtrak California
{{authority control Amtrak routes Transportation in Southern California Public transportation in San Luis Obispo County, California Public transportation in Santa Barbara County, California Public transportation in Ventura County, California Public transportation in Los Angeles County, California Public transportation in Orange County, California Public transportation in San Diego County, California Passenger rail transportation in California Airport rail links in the United States Higher-speed rail