San Joaquins
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The San Joaquins refers to a train route operated by Amtrak California in California's Central Valley. It runs daily from the Jack London Square Station in Oakland and the I Street Station in Sacramento to the Truxtun Avenue Station in Bakersfield, with bus connections to points in Southern and Northern California, and many other places in between.
The San Joaquins have existed sinced the inception of Amtrak in the 1970's. Their service has increased from one roundtrip per day to four rondtrips between Oakland and Bakersfield, plus two roundtrips between Sacramento and Bakersfield. The Cabral Station in Stockton is where the two routes meet. Additional connections are provided by bus.
The San Joaquins are equipped with Amtrak California Fleet: bi-level high-capacity passenger cars, of several types: coach-baggage, dining/cafe car, coach, cab car, and cab-baggage. A cab car is a regular coach with a set of engineer's controls and headlights on one end, allowing the train to be operated in either direction without turning the whole consist. A cab-baggage is the same thing, but with space on the car's lower level for checked luggage storage.
Two types of locomotives are used on the San Joaquins. The first, and most common, is the EMD F59PHI, road numbers CDTX 2001-2015. The other, less common type is the General Electric Dash 8-32BWH, road numbers CDTX 2051-2052. These locomotives are owned by the California State Department of Transportation (CDTX), and operated by Amtrak. However, other locomotives can occasionally be seen on the San Joaquins, including Amtrak Dash 8s and P42DCs. Amtrak California locomotives and cars have a paint scheme unique to California, so they are easily recognizable.
A typical San Joaquin consist is as follows:
- F59PHI
- Coach-Baggage Car
- Dining Car
- Coach
- Cab Car
However, during some holdiay seasons, the number of cars must be increased.
The San Joaquins operate over Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) trackage between Bakersfield up the Central Valley to Port Chicago, west of Antioch. At Port Chicago, the San Joaquins switch to the tracks of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) for the rest of their run to Oakland.
Train Numbers
Southbound typical schedule
- 702: Departs Sacramento 6:35 am, Arrives Bakersfield 11:58 am
- 712: Departs Oakland 7:30 am, Arrives Bakersfield 1:46 pm
- 714: Departs Oakland 10:05 am, Arrives Bakersfield 4:16 pm
- 716: Departs Oakland 1:05 pm, Arrives Bakersfield 7:21 pm
- 704: Departs Sacramento 4:25 pm, Arrives Bakersfield 9:43 pm
- 718: Departs Oakland 5:50 pm, Arrives Bakersfield 11:56 pm
Northbound typical schedule
- 711: Departs Bakersfield 4:55 am, Arrives Oakland 10:55 am
- 701: Departs Bakersfield 7:15 am, Arrives Sacramento 12:30 pm
- 713: Departs Bakersfield 10:15 am, Arrives Oakland 4:25 pm
- 715: Departs Bakersfield 1:15 pm, Arrives Oakland 7:25 pm
- 717: Departs Bakersfield 3:45 pm, Arrives Oakland 10:00 pm
- 703: Departs Bakersfield 5:40 pm, Arrives Sacramento 11:00 pm