The Starlight Slices Sandcut. Throttling up for the climb up onto the floor of the San Joaquin Valley, Amtrak's detouring northbound Coast Starlight banks through the final curve on the Mojave Subdivision as it approaches the section of straight track for the final sprint to Bakersfield following it's trip over Tehachapi. The re-routing of this train and it's southbound counterpart came following Metrolink cutting in and needing to test new signals along a section of track on Van Nuys.
Running daily between Seattle and Los Angeles, this train offers running alongside the Pacific Ocean and through the Cascade Mountains. It has been one of Amtrak's long-distance success stories.
