Edhat Staff
Last week members of the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) met to hear a presentation regarding disruptions to train services during peak hours.
As part of the South Coast Subregional Planning Committee, the group learned of an effort to potentially work with Metrolink to provide commuter rail service between Ventura County and Goleta to fill the gaps left behind from Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner during the pandemic.
Pacific Surfliner service, managed by the Los Angeles-San DiegoSan Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency (LOSSAN), was reduced in the Spring of 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Included in the service reductions were the suspension of trains which operated during the morning and afternoon peak commute periods between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.
Since that time, LOSSAN has reinstated an afternoon train, which departs Goleta Station at approximately 4:30PM.
The “morning train” which began its route at Los Angeles Union station at approximately 4:00AM and arrived in Goleta just after 7:00AM has not been reinstated.
In the presentation is a “Preliminary Concept” of what the Metrolink service could offer. It shows the Metro train leaving Moorpark at 6:33 AM and making stops in Camarillo, Oxnard, Ventura, Carpinteria, and Santa Barbara before landing in Goleta at 8:00 AM.
The SBCAG staff report states that due to lack of equipment and limited State funding, LOSSAN has not reinstated its full set of trips operated prior to the pandemic. While effort is underway by LOSSAN to increase service levels between Los Angeles and Goleta, the specific morning train that served the peak-hour commute corridor is not (presently) part of LOSSAN’s service expansion.
The potential start date of this new partnership with Metrolink is April 2024.
“Given this and the long-standing objective to provide train service between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, staff at the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) and SBCAG have been working together to explore options for implementation of additional train service that meets the regional needs of commuters,” the staff report states.
Metrolink will return to the subcommittee and its partners with a cost proposal for its “AM peak hour service” for all partners to review.
