'Hotel train' between LA and San Francisco could soon hit the rails
The deluxe Dreamstar Lines train would travel overnight from the California hubs
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A Southern California startup is working to create a new overnight passenger train service that would link Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Dreamstar Lines Inc. calls the experience a "premium overnight ‘hotel train’ passenger train service," saying passengers will be able to board trains in a city center or suburban station, fall asleep in a private room and wake up at their destination.
"A ‘short haul’ flight is anything but – when you consider the time lost to check-in, security, and travel to and from remote airports," it said on its website. "On a deluxe sleeper train, you spend fewer waking hours traveling than you would flying... and you don't arrive feeling like you've already had a full day's work."
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The trains would leave at about 10 p.m. and arrive at around 8:30 a.m., Dreamstar told SFGate.
Tickets would range from $300 to $1,000, with an aim to charge less than Amtrak.
Staffing, rail cars, financing and other logistics for the privately funded Newport Beach-based company are currently in progress. The train is not yet named, per SFGate, and would share the same route that Amtrak's Coast Starlight uses during the day.
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It would be modern, with electronic ticket sales and an app that would help with services.
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Its founder Tom Eastmond told the SFGate that Dreamstar is in talks with Union Pacific Railroad and Metrolink. The train would also make stops at existing stations along the way, requiring further agreements.
Snow-capped mountains are seen in the distance behind the downtown skyline on March 2, 2023, in Los Angeles, California, where a new cold system brought hail and snow to unusually low elevations for the mountains in Southern California. ((Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)
While the website said service would begin as soon as later this year, Eastmond said it hopes to start service in summer 2024, with the potential to expand to other U.S. routes.
"In our investment pitch, we’re saying we make a decent profit with six cars," he said. "Our model is based on about 45,000 riders per year, or 62 per train. That would be a 75% load factor."
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Dreamstar did not immediately return FOX Business' request for comment.