The Pacific Surfliner travels through beautiful landscapes not to be missed. As I headed north, the views changed from the urban scenery of Los Angeles to views of the Pacific Ocean. Against the blue of the ocean were bright yellow spring blooms. As the train hugged the curve of the shoreline, I saw lands once occupied by the Chumash, hidden from the Pacific Coast Highway.

The Pacific Surfliner’s route is 350 miles/563 km. With twenty-six stations, it goes from San Diego to San Luis Obispo. I boarded at Union Station in LA, headed north for home.

San Luis Obispo is halfway between LA and San Francisco. While there is a small local airport, the United flights cost disproportionately, with questionable reliability. Many people drive to Santa Barbara or further to LAX or SFO for their flights. For my trip to Hong Kong, Wade and I drove to LA, where we spent a couple of days before my 15-hour flight.

For my trip home, I decided to stay overnight near LAX and take the Pacific Surfliner the following day.

I would have loved to catch a flight home the same day. However, I wasn’t sure how long immigration would take as the wait at LAX can be extremely long. There’s a late-night United flight which probably would have worked. After 13 hours on a full flight, immigration, and then security, though? Anyway, I’ve been curious about the Pacific Surfliner.

Union Station | FlyAway LAX – Union Station | Pacific Surfliner | Gaviota Pier | The Ranch | Jalama

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Union Station

Union Station in Los Angeles is a major hub.

Opened in 1939, “the last of the great railway stations” became the terminal for three railroad companies – Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe (AT&SF), the Southern Pacific, and the Union Pacific. The Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, as it was first called, combined their passenger services in one location.

The name of the route between San Diego and LA was the Surf Line on AT&SF Railway. The name “Pacific Surfliner” links to this.

Left: from Wikicommons, Interior of New Union Station by Tichnor Brother; Right: photo I took in May 2025

Taking the FlyAway Bus – LAX to Union Station

After a leisurely morning, I checked out at 12:30PM and waited for the free shuttle back to LAX. Don’t forget to tip the shuttle drivers. They help everyone with their luggage, which really I appreciated. Those bags can feel so much heavier after a long flight. Even though my suitcase was not overweight, I had repacked it the night before and lightened it by shifting some things over to the duffel bag I had with me.

I have the JanSport Weekender Duffel Bag – tough enough to check in and flexible enough to pack in a suitcase. I had it in my backpack which was my carryon.

At LAX Terminal 2, I took the lift down a level to Arrivals and easily found the blue FlyAway sign. I had bought a ticket on their website the previous night. A one-way FlyAway Bus ticket is now $12.75, from $9.75 since April 2, 2025, and is good for 60 days. (Since it’s just a scan code, someone else can use it, if you can’t.)

From LAX, there are two FlyAway buses – to Union Station and Van Nuys Station. Be sure you’re loading your luggage and yourself onto the right one.

After loading my suitcase and duffel bag, I boarded the bus and scanned my ticket QR code. While there is an overhead rack, I put my knapsack on my lap for the trip. (You’re allowed two checked bags and a carryon.) By the time we made it through all the airport terminals, which took about fifteen minutes, the bus only had two empty seats.

According to the FlyAway website, the bus ride from LAX to Union Station is about thirty minutes. Depending on traffic, it can take 60 – 70 minutes. That day, which was Thursday, it took us an hour. So I had a good nap.

Navigating Union Station

The FlyAway bus drops off on the Vignes Street side of Union Station (1). If you have luggage, the easiest is to cross the street and take one of the elevators (2) down to the ground floor. The down escalator just inside the entrance was out of order that day anyway. The platform for Pacific Surfliner 777 (4) is between the two entrances of the station.

I headed to the ticket office (3) to confirm if they were doing luggage check-in. They don’t, for the Pacific Surfliner. I was hoping to check in my bags and walk around the station. So I only got to see a small portion.

Across from the Amtrak ticket office are a few of the food options. I got a veggie bowl from Cilantro Fresh Mexican Grill and a bottle of water (3).

Pacific Surfliner

From LA to SLO, there are only two Pacific Surfliner trains, a morning and afternoon train. Other times are mixed services – train and bus. From Santa Barbara or SLO, a bus also goes north to Oakland, about another six hours from SLO.

I booked a seat in Business Class on 777, which departs 3:13PM. Business Class has guaranteed seating.

At Union Station, the Business Class car is near the front, the first one after the locomotive. The next is the Café car and then the Unreserved Coach cars, with the last one for bike storage. You have to load and unload your bike and keep in mind, if you are using mixed services, that bike racks are limited and is first-come-first-serve. While bike storage on the train is free, you need to reserve at the time of ticket purchase.

Train Number	Depart Los Angeles	Arrive San Luis Obispo
761	7:13AM	12:39PM
777	3:13PM	8:46PM

Boarding the Pacific Surfliner

At the Business Class car, an attendant greeted me. He also helped me with my suitcase. While he attended to his tasks, I found a forward-facing seat. From the signage, I realized that the lower deck seating requires a ticket. This option, I did not see when I was on their website. It’s for people with mobility issues, for example.

When I saw all the empty seats, I checked in with the attendant and explained how exhausted I was and my ankle was starting to swell. He was nice and checked that there were plenty of seats and so I settled in. He came by with a snack pack and asked me what I wanted to drink. You can choose from soft drink, wine, or lager. On the morning train, the options are tea, coffee, water, and juice, along with pastry.

LA to Grover Beach

777 goes all the way to San Luis. The station before that is my destination. Opened in 1996, Grover Beach Station is unmanned, a simple structure that we’ve passed by countless times. It’s a tiny station that your ride could walk up to the platform to greet you. By the time the train slowed to a stop at Grover Beach Station, about twenty minutes behind schedule, night had already fallen.

Grover Beach

Not far from the station are the famous Oceano Dunes. It’s a short walk from Grover Beach Station.

The Dunes are quite a sight.

You can rent an ATV from BJ’s ATV Rentals, one of the few companies located in Oceano, the next town over from Grover Beach. Note that the dunes can be very steep. Apparently it’s a bit Mad Max out there.
You can also rent e-bikes to explore other areas, including the Monarch Butterfly Grove, the boardwalk, and Pismo Pier.

If you’re hungry, Grover Station Grill is right there, at 170 W Grand Avenue. My in-laws like Red Bee Coffee and get their bread from Grover Beach Sourdough, both just down the street from the grill.

Founded in 1887, Grover City, according to its government website, was promoted as “the place where the tide lands and the rails meet” (DW Grover), “grandest summer and winter seaside resort on the Pacific Coast” (Grover and partner, George Gates), and then as “home of the average man” (Horace V. Bagwell) in the 1930s.

It was in 1992 that the residents voted the name be changed to Grover Beach.

Below are my photos of the journey home, with timestamps. You can gauge where we are by looking at the Pacific Surfliner train schedule, taking into account the delay. After the train departed, I ate my veggie bowl and then fell sleep for a couple of hours.

left: 6:22PM; right: 6.32PM (station stop – Goleta?)

Gaviota Pier

Gaviota State Park is less than an hour west of the city of Santa Barbara and fifteen miles from Point Conception. Covering nearly 3,000 acres, the park includes five miles of shoreline.

Point Conception is the dividing line between Southern and Central California. Here the warm water becomes cold and Gaviota Pier is the last one in southern waters. From the pier, surfers launched their boats to get to the lineups before it closed in 2015 due to storm damage. You can still go from the state beach.

The state park also includes a seasonal campground with restrooms, picnic tables, and store and day-use parking lot. Both tent and RV camping are allowed here. Don’t have a RV? 101 RV Rentals delivers trailers. They also deliver trailers to the state beach campgrounds at El Capitan, Carpinteria, and Refugio.

left: 6:50PM; right: 6:51PM

Gaviota is part of what was known as “The Gap”, the area without direct rail service. It was the last area to be addressed for LA-San Francisco rail travel. Of the train trestles built in “The Gap”, the one near Gaviota Pier is the largest. Built in 1900, it spans 811 feet. Also known as the “Ghost Bridge”, this trestle towers 80 feet above the sandy beach.

Stories about the ghosts that haunt Gaviota vary. The most commonly-cited is the one of two girls roaming the campground and crying on the bridge. Other stories refer to others who’ve died there, including Victorian women. According to PBS SoCal, a girl died in 1910. To avoid an oncoming train, the two girls climbed to the side of the trestle and hung on.

Gaviota means “seagull” in Spanish. A soldier part of a 1769 Spanish expedition shot down a seagull (!!). This became the beach’s name. After the Spanish took over, the land became ranch land, first part of Rancho Refugio owned by the Ortega family, before the Diblee and Holster families purchased it in 1866.

Long before the Spanish and the Americans, this land was the home of the Chumash people. At the mouth of Gaviota Creek was the village of Onomgio. For the Chumash, Point Conception is the Western Gateway or the point furthest west for souls to leave this earthly plane.

Here the Pacific Coast Highway heads inland through the Gaviota Gorge Tunnel. From here, only those travelling by rail can see views of the ocean. You may know this tunnel from the movie The Graduate.

More info available from The Gaviota Land: A Glimpse into California History from a Bend on El Camino Real by Merlyn Chestnut (1993)

the Ranch

This area is known as “The Ranch” by surfers. The surf breaks are reachable by boat. Or invite from a resident in the Hollister and Bixby Ranches. The land here remains untouched and undeveloped. They were once the home of the Chumash people who called it the Western Gateway to heaven.

I’ll never take this place for granted because it is so spiritual in its existence…I tell everyone, never take it for granted. It’s still the Western Gateway. It’s still God’s best creation.

Scott Mcintyre (link to his interview)

left: 7:04PM; right: 7:11PM

The Hollister Ranch lies west of Gaviota State Park. It remains a working cattle ranch and a housing community. In the 1950, the Hollister family allowed the Santa Barbara Surf Club and other small clubs recreational access. The surf club named the surf spots Razor Blades, Drake’s, Little Drake’s, Utah, and St. Augustine. The spots off the Bixby Ranch are Cojo Point, Perko’s Point, and Government Point.

The Bixby Ranch was sold in January 2007 (reportedly for $140 million). With roots in Maine, by the early 1850s, the Bixbys and Flints (cousins) had joined forces to eventually amass ranch land in southern California. The Bixbys would come to own “what is now Long Beach and parts of Irvine and Palos Verdes” as Anne Herold and Dan Harder wrote in the Los Angeles Times.

It’s perhaps challenging to imagine how different California was then. More cattle than people. Perhaps this is why The Ranch is seen as the “last perfect place” in California – you can see it as you roll by on the Pacific Surfliner.

The 2007 purchase caused some concerns about possible development. In 2017 The Nature Conservancy purchased the Bixby Ranch, a move that ensures the land would be protected.

Jalama

From our camping trip last April, I knew the train passed by Jalama. By the time we reached Jalama, the sun was setting and the landscape was bathed in a warm glow. I thought back to our evenings there, at the start of our camping trip. We reserved a spot next to the creek and we set up facing the ocean. As we prepared or enjoyed our dinner, we watched the sun set in our comfy chairs. It was spectacular.

left: 7:14PM; right: 7:17PM

7:18PM – Bright Yellow Spring Blooms zoom by as the Pacific Surfliner heads north.

left: 7:31PM; right: 7:32PM