I decided to take Amtrak to San Diego to meet my daughter and drive with her back to Fresno for Christmas. As I have written previously, I make this trip a lot, mostly by car, but sometimes by airplane. Flying is a hassle, but driving in the winter has its problems, too: fog in the Valley, and you never know whether you'll be able to make it over the Grapevine because of snow or ice or both. So I took the train, which means train to Bakersfield, bus to Los Angeles, train to San Diego.

I'm happy to report that the trip was wonderful, although it took nine hours instead of the typical six if you drove. I love the train through the Valley, and when we got to Bakersfield, the bus was trackside and whisked us to L.A. No traffic or weather, so we made it in an easy two hours. I had a two-hour layover in L.A. so I walked across the street from Union Station to Olvera Street, which was decorated beautifully for Christmas.

One of my favorite children's books is by Leo Politi called "Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street." It was one of the first things that I saw when I got to my daughter's apartment in San Diego. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

After browsing on Olvera Street, I went back to Union Station to catch the Surfliner train to San Diego. I upgraded to business class for $14, meaning you get a snack, newspaper and plug-ins for your computer. The total cost of the trip, by the way, was $59, which included a AAA discount.

The ride to San Diego was swift and interesting -- quick stops (quick means four minutes to get on and off the train) at Fullerton, Anaheim, Irvine, Santa Ana, Oceanside, Solana Beach and then San Diego. Because of downtown traffiic, I told my daughter that I would meet her in Old Town, and took the San Diego Trolley for $1 to Old Town. She picked me up there and we drove to her apartment in La Jolla near the UC San Diego campus where she goes to school.

The next time you go to San Diego, consider the train. It takes a third longer to get there, but the hassle is so much less than driving through L.A. traffic.

Posted by Jim Boren at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

California expects to add as many as many as 20 million new residents in the next couple of decades. Our state's infrastructure is already strained nearly to breaking, and it will collapse under the weight of all those new people if we don't take steps right now to fix it.

That's why the bipartisan package of infrastructure bonds crafted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats in the state Legislature is so promising and so important. But there's one thing missing from the package: money to continue the process of building a high-speed rail system for the state.

The Legislature added $13 million to the governor's budget for that purpose, but the signs out of Sacramento suggest the governor will veto that appropriation. That could mean the death of the high-speed rail proposal, and that would be tragic. We'd lose a generation of good-paying jobs, and a chance to help clean up the Valley's foul air. A high-speed rail line would also connect the Valley to the rest of the state in both physical and psychological ways, something we desperately need.

The governor is closely focused on building highways and expanding airports, but making them adequate to meet the growing transportation demands would cost three time as much as the high-speed rail line. Those with the governor's ear are telling him the trains would be too expensive, but the greater cost to California would be not building the system.

We need highway improvements, especially on Highway 99 that serves the Valley. But highways and airports are the vision of the 1950s, not the 21st century. E-mail the governor and let him know that -- and right away.

Posted by Russ Minick at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)