Talk:Coast Starlight

Schedule change
Around 4/25/2005 (?), trains 11 and 14 no longer stop at Glendale and instead stop at Van Nuys.

Eleven-hour schedule to go 400 miles, once per day
Even if it runs on time, the one daily train is scheduled to leave Los Angeles at 10:15am and arrive for example in Oakland at 9:32pm. This distance of about 400 miles is comparable to traveling from London to Edinburgh, for which British Rail has a train leaving every hour with a four and a half hour journey. Is that notable? Petershank (talk) 23:59, 10 January 2008 (UTC)


 * No, that is not notable. The two journey's, while similar in distance, are nowhere near similar in the terrain they must traverse.  Plus, the maximum speed on any one point of the Coast Starlight route is 79MPH.  The British version is capable of obtaining speeds beyond that, on a far straighter course, with no physical barriers to deal with.MAL01159 (talk) 16:25, 26 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Yep.Clearly,thatBritish guy has never tried to traverse the California Central Coast,by either car or train.47.137.182.8 (talk) 06:29, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Pacific Parlour cars
Are these vehicles even still being used on the Starlight? I've read discussions and blogs from people that pay attention to these things who've noticed that the Starlight often (usually? always?) now operates without them. I think one major problem with them was that, even though they were remodeled vehicles, they were originally Budd Hi-Level cars used on the El Capitan service of the ATSF, and thus quite old. Even "routine" maintenance may have been more trouble than it was worth. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.234.220.195 (talk) 08:32, 20 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes, the Parlour cars are still very much in use. I cannot confirm this now, but I recall reading somewhere that there are 5 of them.  The same number of Coast Starlight trainsets.  A number of the Parlour cars were prone to breaking down in some way in the past.  Many were taken off the Starlight with an extra dining car put in its place.  But all was repaired in time for the recent re-launch of the Coast Starlight.  I have seen many Starlight trains run through town all with the Parlour.  On my recent trip on the Starlight, the Parlour car was included.MAL01159 (talk) 16:33, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Internet Connectivity
The train used to have pretty good Internet connectivity in all of the cars. A conductor explained that connectivity was achieved using the cell sites along Highway 1. Of course there were gaps in connectivity when the train, say, entered a tunnel. Then around 2018 no Internet connectivity was available at all. This may save some money but it sure is inconvenient on long trips. Of course the money savings are not reflected in the ticket price.

non Daylight?
In the 2nd sentence at the top of the page, there is a sentence where the name "Coast Starlight" comes from. I have heard of SP running a "Coast Daylight" but never "Noon" or "Morning" Daylight. Is there anything to support this?MAL01159 (talk) 16:38, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

My bad. After further review the names "Morning" and "Noon" Daylight were precursors to the "Coast Daylight" which began in the early '50's.MAL01159 (talk) 16:44, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

Business class on the Starlight?
The On-board services section of the infobox lists both standard and business classes. Is this correct? I thought there's just coach class and the sleepers. Alika (talk) 08:10, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Good catch. Per [] it should be Sleeper Service and Coach class. Highspeed (talk) 08:46, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Route
I'm concerned that the Route section has gotten too long for this article; I think much of it would belong in as-yet unwritten articles about the various subdivisions, unless there's Coast Starlight-specific information. It's also all unreferenced. Mackensen (talk) 13:13, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
 * I agree. While having a description of the route makes sense, the one here is long and poorly written. Reading it makes me feel like I'm listening to a Disney monorail narrator rather than reading an informative summary of the route. A description of a dozen individual track curves seems unnecessary to me, and I doubt most readers are going to care that Linn-Benton Community College is on the right after you leave Albany. If this same style is used on all the other remaining subdivisions, it's going to be a massive, cluttered wall of text that no one can understand. 66.214.200.149 (talk) 07:44, 28 July 2014 (UTC)

I'm very tempted to remove the entire section for now. It's far, far too long per WP:SUMMARY, and it's all unreferenced. I don't this material belongs here. Mackensen (talk) 06:25, 9 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Agreed. The modifications Steverelei has made to this article reads like a long-form route guide, not the proper summary style that's supposed to be used on Wikipedia. Instead of just removing it all, maybe the best course of action would be to talk to Steverelei and instruct him on using summary style and references. --RickyCourtney (talk) 19:01, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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San Diego
Trying to pin down some details on the San Diego operation in 1971-1972. The 1988 California Rail Development Plan says San Diego operation with "through cars" took place May 1971-June 1972. That corresponds with published timetables. Bruce Goldberg puts the end as "April 1972"; I don't recall if he specified through car operation. I think we can rule out June; Gene Poon was writing in the June 1972 issue of Pacific News that "through operation" to San Diego had ended. Unfortunately Trainlife doesn't have the May 1972 issue of Pacific News archived; there are plenty of holdings on the West Coast if someone wants to go looking. Mackensen (talk) 01:50, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Cuesta Hills
Shouldn't the caption for the Cuesta Hills picture read "Coast Starlight with the Cuesta Hills as a backdrop"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 47.137.182.8 (talk) 05:59, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 12:36, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
 * Amtrak Coast Starlight.png