Train Advocates Want More Valley Amtrak Service

In attempting to promote daily round-trip train service between the Coachella Valley and Los Angeles, the nonprofit Southwest Rail Passenger Association invited valley leaders to take a train ride.

They took the eastern route, leaving from Union Station in Los Angeles for the train stop in Palm Springs, a trip that takes about two and a half hours.

“By riding the Sunset Limited, people can see firsthand how vastly superior this is to any mode of transportation,” said Bob Manning, president of the Southwest Passenger Rail Association. “It’s a wonderful way to travel. It’s convenient. It’s fun.”

Amtrak’s Sunset Limited train comes through the valley only three days a week. Last year, nearly 5,900 people boarded the train in Palm Springs.

If you ask the people in charge of promoting tourism and business in the valley, a rail corridor devoted to Palm Springs and Los Angeles would be a boost for the local economy.

“We at the CVA are in strong support of daily passenger service to the Coachella Valley,” said Judy Vossler, senior vice president of the Palm Springs Desert Resort Communities Convention & Visitors Authority. “If we had consistency in daily passenger service, we know it would increase our occupancy.”

Wesley Ahlgren, chief operating officer of the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership, sees better train service adding up to more companies doing business in the desert.

“What we want to have is that opportunity for folks to do business and tie Los Angeles and some of the greater Inland Empire areas into the Coachella Valley so we can diversify our economy,” said Ahlgren.

Federally owned Amtrak is contracted by the state. It would like nothing more than to offer train service seven days a week, but there’s the problem of acquiring the funding to make it happen.

“We only receive 15 percent of our operating support from the federal government, so we’re very careful with the money that we do receive and we’re making the most of what we have. So with additional resources we can provide additional service,” said Peter Gariepy, who works in Amtrak’s Government Affairs office.

So what are the odds of seeing more consistent train service happen anytime soon?

Budgets are tight and there’s the matter of getting Union Pacific, which owns the tracks, to go along.

“There’s a lot of things the Coachella Valley has done over the last 10 years and this is just another one. You have to have the vision for it and we can get there,” said Ahlgren.