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SAN DIEGO — Starting next week, the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner will offer an additional train in each direction between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Beginning Monday, the new southbound Train 578 will depart Los Angeles at 1:15 p.m., arriving in San Diego at 4:12 p.m. Existing northbound Train 591 will be renumbered to Train 593. New Train 591 will depart San Diego at 5:25 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 8:34 p.m.

“Each of the new trains will fill a nearly three-hour gap in our existing schedule, providing expanded possibilities for business and leisure travel between Los Angeles and San Diego,” said Al Murray, chairman of the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor Agency, which oversees the Pacific Surfliner service.

“We appreciate the support of the state of California, Amtrak, BNSF Railway and our local member agencies in launching these additional trains, which mark the first expansion of Pacific Surfliner service in the past three years,” he said.

Chad Edison, chief deputy secretary for rail and transit at the California State Transportation Agency, said the service expansion “represents the initial benefit of a decades-long, multi-hundred-million-dollar capital investment by the state of California to add a third track and grade separations between Los Angeles and Fullerton, which will greatly expand capacity and reduce delays for passenger and freight trains on this busy rail corridor.”

“We look forward to adding additional passenger rail service in the near future, taking full advantage of the new frequencies enabled by the completion of this project,” he said.

As part of the new schedule, officials said minor changes are being made to arrival and departure times of other Pacific Surfliner trains to improve reliability and coordination with other trains.

The Pacific Surfliner travels along a 351-mile route through San Diego, Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, with portions of the route adjacent the Southern California coastline.

With almost 3 million riders in 2018, its the busiest state-supported intercity passenger rail route in the country and will now offer a total of 26 trains a day between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Ticketing and reservations are available on PacificSurfliner.com, Amtrak.com, Amtrak mobile apps or by calling 800-USA-RAIL. Boarding documents can be self-printed, or customers using a smartphone or mobile device can present the eTicket to the conductor by opening a document in their email.