What is the railroad that goes from San Francisco to Los los Angeles?

Question

It goes by my cousin's cousin's house.

Answer 1

The railroad was originally the Southern Pacific's Coast and Los Angeles Divisions.

In the 80's, the Coast Division was re-named the Western Division.

Today of course it is Union Pacific's chunk o' railroad, with Cal Train running the commuter trains between San Jose and San Francisco.

Back in the day, it was the host to several of SP's more fabled named passenger varnish, including the Coast Daylight, the Del Monte, the Lark, the Owl and the Sun Tan Special, with the latter terminating at Santa Cruz.

For decades it was a heavily used route moving all the produce that came out of the Salinas Valley.

Answer 2

Amtrak Coast Starlighter

Answer 3

There's the lightly used former Southern Pacific Coast Line, which goes via San Jose, Salinas, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and on down the coast.

Nowadays most of the freight would use the busy Central Valley line, San Jose to Fremont to Livermore to Stockton on down the valley to Bakersfield, over Techachapi to Mojave, then along Hwy. 14 east through Palmdale and Santa Clarita.  

The Coast Starlight is the fanciest Amtrak train in the country, and it runs on the Coast line.  It's a scenic 12 hour ride.

But most people take the Amtrak San Joaquins; they take a 10 minute bus ride over the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to Emeryville, then a 5 hour train ride around the edge of the bay via Martinez then south to Bakersfield, then a 2 hour bus ride over the Grapevine into L.A.  There's no way to put a train over the Grapevine, it's just too steep.  Even high-speed rail on that route would be tough, you can't go superfast up and down steep grades.

Answer 4

Amtrakk, Coast Starlight....FUN RIDE!!!!!!