I was 6 years old when I first saw this TV movie. Though I was very young, I always liked trains. Being a railroad worker always have it advantages. But when tragedy strikes, most people have a tough time getting over it. So when a disgruntled employee (Paul L. Smith) decided to take action against the company, he would set up the two trains to meet head on. Since everything was running by computer, it took ingenuity of the employees to help stop the disaster from happening. Also the passenger (William Shatner) who happened to be a con man. His heroic efforts did make some effort to the situation. Even though this was a TV, it was loaded with big name stars. This movie has lead to another train disaster movie in 1985 called "Runaway Train". But it's a whole different scenario. 2 out of 5 stars.

You have to go into this movie wanting what you're going to get. I love the TV movies of the 70s and 80s and especially love disaster movies. William Shatner is a charming con-man and clearly having a ball with his role. Robert Fuller plays a handsome cad; you get to see him in just a pair of boxers (woo hoo! he was a crush of mine from back in my preteen days when he starred in Emergency!)Lloyd Bridges is an obnoxious Fed and HG Marshall as the computer guy in charge. I couldn't figure out why the deranged dude who hijacked the trains had a kitten in his car. That was just weird. Overall a fun and satisfying watch if you enjoy the styles and culture of the late seventies - my only quibble was seeing Shatner and Fuller wearing Sansabelt slacks. Ick.

Disaster on the Coastliner (1979) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Lloyd Bridges, Raymond Burr, William Shatner, Pat Hingle, E.G. Marshall, Robert Fuller and Paul L. Smith headline this made-for-TV disaster pic that contains some good suspense even though the actual story is perhaps the dumbest of the genre. A man (Smith) wants to prove that a derailment six years earlier was covered up so he hijacks a train, rigs all the computer controls and is prepared to crash the train into another one that just happens to be carrying the Vice President's wife. I love disaster films and anyone who does will probably want to check this thing out, although there's no question that the actual story might be the dumbest I've ever seen. Now, I'll admit that I'm no railroad expert but the bad guy had way too easy of a time getting his plan carried out and it seems like the good guys had way too much trouble trying to stop the train. We get a few reasons as to why they can't stop the train but these here are just incredibly silly and quite often had me laughing pretty hard. One of the stories is that the bad guy is communicating with the other engineer and tells him that terrorists are trying to take the train over. There are other small gimmicks that the bad guy uses to try and pull this off and they're just as silly. Half-way through the picture we get the reason that the bad guy is doing all this stuff and the film tries to make us feel sorry for him but this little plot point didn't work even though Smith gives the best performance in the film. Shatner gets to play a bad guy with a heart of gold. Burr pretty much just stays seated but he's at least entertaining. Bridges is a real hoot playing a government guy at the trains main station and seeing him pull out of gun twice in the film will give you a guaranteed laugh. As silly as many of the plot points are, there's no question that the movie also has some very tense moments. The entire lead-up to the disaster are very well directed and I thought the final fifteen-minutes were extremely tense. It's a real shame that a lot of these tense moments as well as some nice action pieces are letdown due to a rather weak screenplay. With that said, if you enjoy these made-for-TV movies then you might as well check this one out.

Fun stuff for it's time. An ABC Sunday Night Movie, made by Shatner largely after he completed principal photography on STAR TREK-THE MOTION PICTURE, in 1978. I happened to be on an Amtrak train in 1979,going to a "Star Trek" Convention. The conductor explained to me that that very route-Rhode Island/Connecticut to NYC, was actually the very route and train(Amtrak) on which much of the film was shot, including several stunt sequences involving a small bridge. Many "out the window" reaction shots and some of the interaction was filmed with Connecticut whizzing by the windows. The crew apparently rented out three of the cars to do some quick filming on, however the conductor had access to all of them, so he got to meet the cast used in the sequences.Of course it was an "all star film" like many of the time. And miniatures were used in the film as well. An interesting anecdote.