| The train from Lancaster to Los Angeles scoots across the high desert. This is the Saugus Line (aka the Antelope Valley Line), built by the Southern Pacific as an inland route between LA and San Francisco. These days, passengers can only ride the line as far north as Lancaster, and even that is just because of the Nortridge Earthquake of Jan 1994. The run north of Santa Clarita had been in the long-term plans of Metrolink, but was jump started when the earthquake knocked out an essential freeway. It proved so popular that it was made permanent.. |