All aboard the Coachella express!
In an effort to promote green transport and ease up traffic congestion, organizers are setting up a special train service to and from the festival.
Two weekends of Coachella and a weekend of Stagecoach consecutively, bring some of the best artists to the city of Indio. With hundreds of thousands of eager fans swarming to the valley, traffic has always been a major issue. In a bid to make everyone’s life a little better when it comes to travelling to and from the festival, organizers are working with city officials to set up a special train line during the festivals.
(Courtesy : globalinheritance.org)
Ticket prices, round-trip schedules and stops are still being worked out but Amtrak trains are planned for at least the 2017 and 2018 editions of the festivals. Discussions had been held previously to employ a festival train as a way to reduce traffic air pollution but now they finally have money to fund it. $1.2 million has been approved by the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Committee according to Greg Pettis, chairman of the committee. He also stated in an email that these funds will help subsidize ticket sales to make the trains possible. “The trains will run from L.A. Union Station to Indio, where folks will either be bused directly to the site or go via taxi or other means to their respective hotels,” said Pettis in the same email. Since there is no passenger train platform in Indio, the Riverside County Traffic Commission will build a temporary one to handle the three weekends of passengers .