Bakersfield-to-LA geography and railroads

The huge truck fire on I-5 Newhall Pass (Santa Clarita?) today has raised for me a question about geography and railroad passenger routes. Am I correct in understanding that the southbound San Joaquim Corridor passenger trains terminate at Bakersfield because the Amtrak Thruway Buses connecting Bakersfield and Los Angeles (110 miles, 160 minutes) are quicker than any rail route? Would someone explain the rail history behind attempts to break what appears to me a mountain barrier? I'm a New Yorker, so I am quite unfamiliar with rail history in the region north of LA, except the coastal route (Santa Barbara), which I have rode from Los Angeles to San Jose. Did the predecessor railroads ever provide through passenger service between (let's say) Fresno and Los Angeles? Which way?
Thanks.
Joe

bellstbarn wrote:The huge truck fire on I-5 Newhall Pass (Santa Clarita?) today has raised for me a question about geography and railroad passenger routes. Am I correct in understanding that the southbound San Joaquim Corridor passenger trains terminate at Bakersfield because the Amtrak Thruway Buses connecting Bakersfield and Los Angeles (110 miles, 160 minutes) are quicker than any rail route? Would someone explain the rail history behind attempts to break what appears to me a mountain barrier? I'm a New Yorker, so I am quite unfamiliar with rail history in the region north of LA, except the coastal route (Santa Barbara), which I have rode from Los Angeles to San Jose. Did the predecessor railroads ever provide through passenger service between (let's say) Fresno and Los Angeles? Which way?
Thanks.
Joe

Thats a really good question!, Union Pacific did I think?......
If I find anything ill be sure to pass it along!

This map of Metrolink's route via Newhall and Santa Clarita to Lancaster would seem to say that a rail route does breach the mountains here.
http://www.transit-rider.com/ca.losange ... cfm?id=map

This Wikipedia article has given me more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrolink_ ... alley_Line

However, I don't understand the Lancaster (or Palmdale) to Bakersfield "gap." Who owns the rails through Newhall?
Thanks

You've probably heard of Tehachapi Pass?

That's the Southern Pacific (completed circa 1876) route between Bakersfield and Mojave. Santa Fe has had trackage rights since ... 1800-and-something? The Coast Line via Santa Barbara wasn't completed until after 1900, so the route via Tehachapi was the only RR into LA from Northern Calif until then. SP ran passenger train(s) Oakland to LA via Fresno and Tehachapi until 1971, along with the SF-LA Coast Line train(s).

Yes, the bus Bakersfield to LA is much faster than any train has ever been.

I guess Metrolink itself now owns the RR from LA to Palmdale, plus its own track parallel to the SP from Palmdale to Lancaster?

Having rode the line as part of the June 22nd CS detour, I can say there are many stretches of slow single tracked rock cuts that would be prohibitively expensive to double track.

That said, there are also stretches of single track with roadbed intact for a second track. There were some whispers CA would like to extend one San Juquin down to LA.