Nearly three years after Amtrak began operating most of America’s passenger trains, the carrier restored service to California’s San Joaquin Valley on March 5, 1974. Due to heavy freight traffic over the Tehachapi Mountains, the new San Joaquins operated one round trip per day between Oakland and Bakersfield (with bus connections from BAK to Los Angeles and OAK to San Francisco), utilizing the Santa Fe’s mainline rather than the parallel, and more heavily used, Southern Pacific line. Initially operated with former SP FP7s, over time these trains grew in popularity and service increased to, in 2018, five round trips between Bakersfield and Oakland and two round trips between Bakersfield and Sacramento. Equipment evolved from the original FP7s and heritage cars to F40PHs and "Amfleet" cars, them to F59PHIs and "California Cars" (and, as seen here, the occasional P42DC). By 2018, new Siemens SC-44 "Chargers" were being delivered and placed in service. Four-car train 717 is speeding its way at 79 miles-per-hour through the farms, fields and small towns of California’s "Bread Basket" as it makes its way from Bakersfield to Oakland behind Amtrak P42DC 192 as it passes through Denair (in Stanislaus County) on February 20, 2018.
From one train each way in 1973 between Bakersfield and Oakland when it started up, this line as expanded to six trips daily; four to Oakland and two to Sacramento.
