Proposed Oceanside-San Diego Run : Rush-Hour Commuter Trains Gain Fans

San Diego County’s proposed East Coast-style commuter trains may start to cut into the growing North County freeway congestion within three years if a plan recently endorsed by several North County cities is approved by the Legislature this year.

The proposed rush-hour runs between Oceanside and San Diego would take 70 minutes, about 10 minutes longer than the current trip by car at rush hour, said a San Diego Assn. of Governments official. The $2.50-to-$3.00 cost would be cheaper than an Amtrak ticket for the same trip, which now runs at $5.50. The average commuter fare, based on people getting on and off at stops along the line, would be $1.50.

The commuter plan is part of a study finished last month that calls for increased rail service between Los Angeles and San Diego. Besides providing for 10 commuter rail stations between Oceanside and San Diego, the study calls for replacement of the track along the 128-mile rail corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Called for by state Sen. William A. Craven (R-Oceanside), the study of improving rail service between Los Angeles and San Diego was born in the wake of a proposed bullet train’s failure to gain popular support. The plan for a high-speed train met tremendous opposition several years ago from the same Southern California communities it was designed to serve.

Cheaper Than a Bullet

“We have to find some ancillary system or systems to assuage the (traffic) problem,” Craven said. He said the cost of improvements in existing rail service, projected at $246 million, would be more acceptable than the bullet proposal, which was budgeted at $3.2 billion.

The study proposes adding seven commuter stations for San Diego County to the three existing Amtrak stops at Oceanside, Del Mar and San Diego.

The new commuter-only stations would be added in Carlsbad at Elm Avenue and at Palomar Airport Road; in Encinitas at La Costa Avenue and at Birmingham Avenue (a replacement for the Del Mar station, which would be abandoned); in San Diego at Sorrento Valley Road and Interstate 5, at Miramar Road, at Gilman Drive and I-5, and in Old Town near Rosecrans Street.

Oceanside City Councilman Walter Gilbert, a member of the Los Angeles to San Diego Rail Corridor study group, said the proposed commuter service should pay its own way.

“Eventually, we should be able to put a second set of tracks all the way down to San Diego,” Gilbert said. “You can put in railroad tracks for a quarter of the cost to build a lane of freeway. Our only protection (from freeway congestion) in the future is going to be railroad. I firmly believe this is going to save our sanity in Southern California, particularly along this corridor.”

A joint powers agency consisting of the North County Transit District and the Metropolitan Transit Development Board is planned to operate the commuter service, said Sandag senior transportation planner Mike Zdon. Amtrak might be contracted to operate the commuter trains, which would have double-sized doors to allow for quick entry and exit and “a short dwell time” at stops, Zdon said.

Up to 5,000 Riders Hourly

The study estimates that the commuter runs would initially draw 2,500 riders a day. That should easily go up to 5,000 an hour at rush hour by the year 2005, said transportation consultant Byron Nordberg. With a double-track railroad from Oceanside to San Diego, Nordberg said, it would not be unusual to run six to eight trains an hour during peak traffic conditions. “In Chicago, they’re running on a five-minute schedule” at rush hour, Bordberg said.

Zdon said the proposed train service “would be the first time in San Diego County we have had commuter rail service like they have in the East or in the Bay Area.”

The improvements for the entire corridor are expected to cost about $246 million, which would be paid for by Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego county governments, with matching funds from the state, according to the plan.

As proposed, for the first time there would be passenger stops between Fullerton and Los Angeles. Proposed stops are in East Los Angeles and two stops would be located somewhere along the line between Commerce and Norwalk. Additional stops are proposed for Orange County in Mission Viejo, Irvine, north Irvine and Buena Park. As in San Diego County, some of the new stops would be used only by four new daily commuter trains running between San Clemente and downtown Los Angeles.

Of the total $246 million cost, the capital cost of adding two commuter trains each rush hour from Oceanside to San Diego comes to about $30 million.

Sandag officials say financing of the San Diego County commuter service is dependent on passage in the November election of a measure proposing a one-half-cent county sales tax increase. County officials estimate the tax increase will generate $2.4 billion over 20 years for area transportation needs, including highways and buses. The commuter rail share of the added sales tax revenue would be $70 million, Zdon said.

Last month, the City of Carlsbad passed a resolution backing the commuter rail plans. This week, in a resolution generally supporting the rail study, the Del Mar City Council opposed abandonment of its rail station, asking instead that the plan be modified to retain the Del Mar station as a stop for half of the trains running between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Solana Beach City Council this week also registered concern about the study, calling for further analysis to consider putting the tracks beneath busy Lomas Santa Fe Drive, where trains frequently tie up traffic.