On February 18, 2017, about a year after riding the Coast Starlight north from LA, I was back in LA heading south to work meetings in San Diego.
The text for this post was written in 2026 based on the 2017 trip and photos.
I started from the LA Union Station on #580 with a 2:58pm scheduled departure. The first part of the trip was through the various suburbs, including Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana and Irvine.
It wasn’t until Capistrano Beach and San Clemente that we reached the coast. This is the stretch where the Surfliner gets its name as the ocean is in view almost the entire trip to San Diego.
We arrived in San Diego at Amtrak’s Santa Fe Depot around dinner time after less than three hours from LA.
