Southern Pacific's Lark is coming back (kinda, sorta, maybe)
Last April, a company called Dreamstar Lines announced plans for an overnight service between Los Angeles and San Francisco, in effect, restoring Southern Pacific's Lark service, the overnight equivalent of the more famous Coast Daylight, which ceased service in 1968.
What we know:
>the train would run between Los Angeles Union Station and San Francisco's 4th & King Street Caltrain station
>rolling stock will consist of streamliner cars built in the 1940s and 1950s
>actual train consist would be a locomotive, 5-6 sleeper cars, and a lounge car serving drinks and "tavern food" (idk what that would entail)
>the train would run on a ten-and-a-half hour schedule, departing around 10pm and arrive at its final destination at 8:30am
>Tickets will be in the $300-$1000 (the minimum is slightly higher than the current price for a private room on Los Angeles-Oakland on Amtrak's Coast Starlight at $284)
>there will be no coach service, sleeper class only
>the company hopes to begin operations by Summer, 2024
>the project is far enough along that negotiations with Metrolink and Union Pacific for right of way have already started
The most detailed sources I could find
https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/la-sf-night-train-proposal-dreamstar-17891587.php
https://www.railtech.com/infrastructure/2023/04/21/new-rail-operator-dreamstar-lines-to-run-luxury-night-trains-in-california/?gdpr=accept
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/dreamstar-lines-back-to-the-future/
The company's website
https://dreamstarlines.com/
What do you /n/iggers think? Is the LARK finally back? Or is this all just a big LARP?>>1974491
>ten-and-a-half hour schedule
That's a lot of sitting in sidings. I guess they figure they can make money by trackage rights but not necessarily priority on the mainline. Sounds like it is essentially the same priority as a regular manifest train. That's interesting if true. I presume they'd use the freight railroad's engineers and their own cabin crew.
No one's going to pay for a luxury overnight sleeper train, I think they're misreading the market entirely. Offering a basic service with low fares seems more feasible, or a multi-class arrangement like airlines and many regular passenger trains had or have.
Another problem is equipment - why do they want to use antique rolling stock in daily service? Even if they source enough vintage equipment it'll be such a mish-mash from various predecessor fleets that they'll spend a fortune and use a lot of man-hours restoring and modifying it to be fit for revenue service. A lot of the old stuff is still set up to flush toilets & dump grey waste onto the tracks, for example... it's just not permissible anymore. If they were serious, they'd be considering acquiring new or more modern used equipment that is compatible with Amtrak's fleet, at the least.
I don't think there's a market, I think their plan is flawed, and it's never going to get past the "This would be cool can we have your money?" stage.
https://www.railtech.com/infrastruc
https://www.railwayage.com/passenge
The company's website
https://dreamstarlines.com/
What do you /n/iggers think? Is the LARK finally back? Or is this all just a big LARP?>>1974491
>ten-and-a-half hour schedule
That's a lot of sitting in sidings. I guess they figure they can make money by trackage rights but not necessarily priority on the mainline. Sounds like it is essentially the same priority as a regular manifest train. That's interesting if true. I presume they'd use the freight railroad's engineers and their own cabin crew.
No one's going to pay for a luxury overnight sleeper train, I think they're misreading the market entirely. Offering a basic service with low fares seems more feasible, or a multi-class arrangement like airlines and many regular passenger trains had or have.
Another problem is equipment - why do they want to use antique rolling stock in daily service? Even if they source enough vintage equipment it'll be such a mish-mash from various predecessor fleets that they'll spend a fortune and use a lot of man-hours restoring and modifying it to be fit for revenue service. A lot of the old stuff is still set up to flush toilets & dump grey waste onto the tracks, for example... it's just not permissible anymore. If they were serious, they'd be considering acquiring new or more modern used equipment that is compatible with Amtrak's fleet, at the least.
I don't think there's a market, I think their plan is flawed, and it's never going to get past the "This would be cool can we have your money?" stage.
