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4/19/2023
A California startup firm wants to launch an overnight passenger train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, SFGATE reported yesterday.
Dreamstar Lines Inc. officials said it’s working on lining up the rail cars, financing, staffing and agreements needed to begin operating the route.
The train would depart either location at 10 p.m. and arrive around 8:30 a.m. as riders sleep in private rooms.
Dreamstar is in talks with Union Pacific Railroad and Metrolink, which each own or control part of the 470-mile route. To move forward, the company would also need an agreement with Caltrain, which owns the tracks between San Jose and San Francisco, SFGATE reported.
Dreamstar was founded by Tom Eastmond, an attorney in Orange County. The company has lined up two advisory board members with significant railroad operating experience, one of whom is Mike Scanlon, the former CEO of Caltrain and the San Mateo County Transit District, according to the report.
If the company succeeds in starting up the service, it would be the first night train on the route in decades — the last was the Spirit of California, which ran between 1981 and 1983 from Los Angeles to Sacramento on the same route as Amtrak’s Coast Starlight. California Gov. George Deukmejian ultimately pulled state funding for the route. Since then, the corridor has become one of the busiest for air travel, SFGATE reported.