Auto Club Speedway nixes Metrolink service
The Auto Club Speedway will not use Metrolink's charter train service during the Pepsi 500 Weekend in October.
Officials cited the economy for the shift in policy.
"We hope at some point the financial model will again make sense," said Speedway President Gillian Zucker. "But with the current economic downturn, there is very little demand for a service, no matter how convenient, that charges between $20 and $35 per person to ride the train, especially when on-site parking is free and plentiful. It just doesn't make sense."
This is not what I wanted to read. I was planning on taking the train to the race. The cost was not even a factor this year. It was all about not having to deal with the traffic in and out of the track. Usually we go with many other friends and tail gate all day, fire up the bbq after the race and head out after most of the other cars are gone. But with the new date, it not being a night race and so many other changes, we wanted to just get there, have less of a walk, watch the race and jet out. So far not thrilled with what Autoclub has done.
Auto Club has sinlge handedly destroyed this track. This speedway will probably be torn down just like Ontario. The first decade was awesome but the last few years have been so bad that I know many people who are not going to come back and they only live a few miles from the track, including me. The cancellation of the Metrolink service will only speed up the demise of this facility. And please do not ever let San Bernardino County sponser another race again. They are totally inept. As for Auto Club Speedway...they couldn't run a lemonade stand. What about all the people in Los Angeles who don't want to drive. They live right next to the Subway station that they usually take to the race but now that the train does not stop there no one will go. And no one wants to park in the poorly planned parking lots because it takes hours. Fontana has a lot of work to do around the speedway. Fontana has taken its sweet time to develop the surrounding area because it is a poorly run city. While Fontana was getting it's $#!t togeter, Rancho Cucamonga constructed all the hotels and restaurants leaving Fontana with nothing. Fontana's poorly run city and meager economy will drive this speedway into a ditch. I miss California Speedway. What a classy operation that was.