I never even thought of hydrogen power for trains. It makes so much more sense than for cars, but I still think it makes more sense to just electrify the line, no matter how cool hydrogen power sounds.

That's a brave man, standing outside in San Bernardino to get footage.

I love riding metrolinks arow line!! Even more so now that K-12 SoCal students and college students ride for free!!🎉

THE ARROW LINE SHOULD HAVE IT'S ONLY LINE FROM CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO TO COACHELLA VALLEY AND RUN INDEPENDENTLY FROM LA METROLINK. WITH OTHER STATIONS YUCAIPA, CRAFTON COLLEGE, CALIMESA, WEST BEAUMONT, BEAUMONT, EAST BEAUMONT, CABAZON, PALM DESERT, PALM SPRINGS AIRPORT, THOUSAND PALMS AND INDIO, COACHELLA AND THERMAL.

Stadler diesel-electric multiple units have the opportunity to become the modern American interurban with lower capital cost compared to other forms of rail transit.

I rode this train, the cars are beautiful. They should look into going down to Riverside since there’s only one train that goes mid afternoon down that corridor.

I moved to San Bernardino about a year and a half ago. My wife and I took the MetroLink to LA a few month ago when we needed to go to a consulate. It was a big and loud 2 decker trains and nothing we're used to in Japan. I did use it once again last month so I can drink responsibly. It took way more time than car but was okay. It was free for me as a grad student. I plan to take the Arrow to Redlands in a week, again to drink responsibly.

SPRINTER between Oceanside and Escondido is much more impressive than ARROW. Sprinter is more than twice as long, it runs every 30 minutes most of the time, and the fare is the same as the local bus service. Sprinter uses Siemens Desiro DMU trains that are older and less impressive than the new Stadler FLIRT trains. Because Sprinter is unaffected by street traffic, it is extremely reliable.

They really show make these diesel Stadler units a standard across America

It’s clean and quiet and has a security guard in the cabin but I noticed that not a lot of people ride it

I rode on the Arrow about a month after it opened, and I couldn’t have been more impressed!

I would love to see an Obscure Transit video about Honolulu's Skyline rail system!

I'm very excited for the Arrow line. I live about an hour away from Redlands and I've been to downtown Redlands many many times. This will really make that downtown something special. The biggest thing is extending the rail line through other parts of the IE. Imagine this running east all the way to Palm Springs, stopping at Beaumont along the way. And then imagine it running west along the 10 to Ontario airport. And yeah, much more smaller stops are needed too. I hope they also start developing high density mixed use neighborhoods near the stops.

In my recent transit tourism journey to SoCal last month, I arrived in Ontario so I could explore the Arrow. Since only one DMU unit is operating right now, there’s no sense of how it can improve service with multiple units, but I found it comfortable and modern, as it should be (though having USB-A-only outlets shows how challenging it is for public infrastructure to keep up with technology trends). It feels more like a large LRT shuttle, with level boarding onto low-floor trains. Unfortunately they won’t be able to run the new FLIRTS on the rest of the line due to platform inconsistencies, without modification. The modifications are probably not as complex as one might imagine to allow multiple DMU consists on the legacy routes; may be limited to freight limits on platform heights however. At SBDT station where the two lines meet, modifications were made at one end of two platforms for the higher boarding levels. One shares a platform so a quick walk across the platform is all that’s needed. The other is on another platform requiring exiting the platform to. Interestingly, in order to operate a single, very early “express” service into Union Station M-F from Redlands downtown, there’s a second platform, serviced on the opposite side of Arrow at the other end of the station block, for the regular diesel consists. It’d be interesting to see what it would take to make them compatible to be usable on other routes-presumably those with tracks not shared with freight adjacent to the platform. Something you didn’t mention was how the service gets severed from the rest of MetroLink for a couple hours midday M-F to shuttle ESRI workers from their station to Redlands downtown & university stations. I happened to be on the last line E/B before the short service & ended up having 1.5 hours to walk around the 1/2 square mile of historic Redlands that made me think that San Bernardino county was not as much of a wasteland as I knew LOL

i went to redlands uni and i was there for the arrow opening!! i was so happy when it opene because getting around had become difficult as the school shuttle much less after the pandemic. the trains are so modern and they were a joy to ride. i still have my arrow shirt from the grand opening event 😛

They should just electrify the line. A $5 day pass would be a much better price to increase ridership.

Nice video. The arrow seems like a fantastic service. Some more frequency would be nice, but it's still really encouraging to see a service like this in SoCal, and it's nice to see that it's successful so far. It's services like this that make taking transit far more enjoyable than driving. By the way, the patreon link in the description is broken.

Very impressive, at last a decent looking train in the USA.

Arrow is great. I ride when I stay in San Bernardino to head to state street in redlands

This was exciting to hear about, I've been riding the Metrolink San Bernardino line since I was a kid to get from the IE to LA... I'm really glad that rail options are expanding in the area. I grew up in the city that's getting the Brightline train to Vegas (which will be share a station with the SB line iirc) so, with an airport already in the area, I feel like the region is really going to blow up!

very neat video to watch as usual!

The Budd Company had this concept in wide-scale operation 75 years ago. Brill had it even earlier. It's a good idea, but not a new one.

The Train is pretty cute

You should do a video about Toronto Transit! :D

This is a very interesting project. Redlands is a pretty tony town and often tries to ignore San Bernardino to the northwest. Also curious there's demand for such a specific service.

How’s the land use surrounding the stations? One thing Caltrain does well is a lot of the stops are historic and the downtowns formed because of the stops. So when you hit San Mateo, Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, it’s all right by their downtown core. But the urban sprawl is still there and the last mile issue is highly problematic with VTA and Samtrans barely functioning bus services for the single family neighborhoods engulfing the cities. Makes it hard to use the train to visit people - easy to visit restaurants and attractions though.

For a brand new service opening in the 2020s, there is no reason they shouldn’t have electrified it.

I was impressed with Arrow when I tried it... except the part about having to hang your bike from the ceiling.

Given that they spent the money to completely re-do the trackbed, they should have just electrified it. Without double tracking and connections to real destinations such as CSUSB, this service will never be popular, and it's much slower than the freeway it parallels. The key metric is public subsidy per boarding, which is over $100.

The $10 weekend pass is great

One of the newest and least ridden rail in the U.S

Nice video. I just found this channel recently and I have a bit of catching up to do, but this is a well made video. Although, I feel Redlands would benefit more from direct Metrolink service to LA instead of a 10 mile shuttle which invves a transfer at San Bernardino. I've noticed a few other rail projects in CA, such as Valley Link and eBart, involve these transfers in the middle of suburbia to a short shuttle service instead of simply extending the existing line, but maybe that's a frequency issue (which could be solved by double tracking and more funding).

What a beautiful train

That method they use to power their light rail seems pretty good! Maybe they should use it to power their regional trains too!

ARROW'D!!!!!

I would love for them to add more express service. I travel to work in the opposite direction of Union Station and there are no express trains heading that way during commute hours. That transfer from San Bernardino line to Arrow can add 20 or 30 minutes to the travel time.

I love the historic architecture of those Redlands stations. I wish we would build more stations in that style instead of the trashy modernist aesthetic we get now (which will look tacky in 10 years).

Metrolink and the State of California need to suck it up and electrify their mainline tracks instead of relying on experimental and less efficient hydrogen!

I would love to see them replace the entire Metrolink fleet with FLIRTs!

Where did you find the information about Arrow expanding into Highland? Im unable to find anything about it.

I realize this is unlikely, but I would absolutely love to see the service extended west to the San Bernardino depot and then south to Riverside. The Stretch of 215 freeway between the nearby major cities of San Bernardino and Riverside is always jammed and there is very little in the way of connecting services between them on the IEOC line. I lice near the Metrolink Perris South Station and if I was trying to get to any destination on the SB line, my only choice is to transfer in LA. It's ridiculous.

I hope the service is well advertised in the area because the route is very limited. If they get enough passenger interest, they could use that as evidence to expand the service. Thanks

What was the comment at 2:28 that flashed up for like half a second that says "Did you see.....?"

Riverside is south of San Bernardino, not west of it, as you labeled on the map. The frequency here is kinda disappointing given that the eBart extension which very closely parallels this project almost always runs 20-min frequencies on a equal length track, while serving fewer people, with the same trainsets.

It sounds like it will be a decent line with a bright future. Don’t forget to do a lot of advertising to attract more ridership…

Linear transfers are the worst. They should just buy more FLIRTs and through-run this service all the way to LA Union

Are many people riding it? Every video I've seen of this rail line shows nearly empty platforms and trains, along with empty parking lots. :/

When will metrolink use these multiple units systemwide? I really want to see these trains replacing the existing diesel push-pull trains systemwide. I emailed the metrolink but they said they could not decided due to fundings by LA Metro and San Bernardino County Transportation authority. Do we have to contact LA Metro and San Bernardino County Transportation Authority for review/ consideration? Also hydrogen train does not make sense, prefer using DMU/ EMU/ BEMU.

The stations between the two downtowns need better connecting bus routes and more transit-oriented development. The great investment of nice trains and decent service seems like it's being wasted on poor land use

2:29 “THAN YES”?

Hydrogen lol, as silly as battery trains when we already invented electricity a century ago and massively distributed it to everywhere

Honestly, I‘m not at all impressed by these small DMU services slowly popping up in the US, like this and TexRail. The frequencies are poor or very poor for continuous urban areas, the alignments feel wonky and like they don‘t serve enough points of interest and as a result the ridership is just not good enough. The only service of this nature that I think will be well-implemented is the Ottawa O-Train Line 2/4 when it opens. And even there the line serves very sparse places towards its southern end. Sure, the trains are nice, but they need to run in places where as many people as possible will ride them, on alignments that allow them to actually provide speedy and valuable connections. The Arrow really does feel like a light rail or BRT wouldn’t have been a worse choice. It could‘ve even been a better one, given the better frequencies one could‘ve expected from those other modes.

5:40 hyrdrogen trains?!?

"Defined by its sprawl" Okay bud, this is LA, not Atlanta, NYC sprawls almost twice as much as LA! LA has some of the least egregious sprawl of any metro in the US simply because its geography prevents it. It was a fun meme in the 80s but, we really need to put it to rest. Great video, it's an exciting time as far as transit is concerned, that's for sure.

Hydrogen power is stupid. Carrying fuel of any kind is stupid. Just copy Japan and Europe and use overhead electrical power supply. There’s a reason for it.

"Hydrogen trains". The US will really do anything to prevent the cheapest, most reliable, simplest, and fastest train speed tech of overhead wires just cause the upfront cost is a bit higher. What a waste, just electrify the lines already.

Just report this as misleading information. I should not watch the whole video to give you credit. I dont expect train lovers to understand the meaning of public transportation. My mistake. This is not the last mile. The local public transportation in San Bernadino n Redland. Then, again, the so call transit n climbate advocates train lovers don't really care. They have cars. What do i do when i reach Redlan or San Bernadino, just walk around 5 miles n curse selfish train lovers ridiculous theories. The non car drivers are not part of transit equation. We have cars to pollutie the surface street. We still want to be called environmentalistd. Oh, at the end, you talk about car free. I dont see anything on omni transit bus improvement. The biggest irony is accessible. US is the best in accessible on public transportation. However, with help of auto industry n car lover train lovers, US public transportation is terrible. Many train lovers obviously don't know lots of non cwr drivers are handicap