Major Rail Upgrading Will Be Proposed for San Diego-L.A. Service

Recommendations for major improvements in rail service between Los Angeles and San Diego--to include commuter trains, new stations and possible public purchase of a portion of the line--will be announced today in Oceanside.

The recommendations for a $246-million capital improvement program to begin immediately result from a two-year study by a group of state, local, Amtrak and Santa Fe Railway officials, a spokesman for Caltrans confirmed late Monday.

The study was carried out under legislation sponsored by Sen. William Craven (R-Carlsbad). Craven’s legislation required state and local officials to evaluate the existing rail line and recommend a comprehensive program for upgrading.

Similar recommendations have been made periodically during the past decade without being carried out, in large part because of opposition from the Santa Fe Railway, which owns the 133-mile line from Los Angeles through Orange County to San Diego. Santa Fe’s willingness to consider the latest recommendations will be critical to their implementation.

The Caltrans spokesman, who asked not to be named, said that Santa Fe was consulted regularly by the joint study group but he could not say to what extent the company has already agreed on the findings.

Among the major recommendations to begin immediately:

- Short-term low-cost track improvements to shorten the Los Angeles-San Diego one-way running time of Amtrak trains by 20 minutes--to 2 hours, 25 minutes from 2 hours, 45 minutes.

- Addition of new stations in southern Los Angeles County and northern San Diego County.

- Addition of two daily commuter round trips at the Los Angeles and San Diego ends of the line. The trains would run the entire distance but their schedules would be set to attract working commuters into San Diego and Los Angeles.

- Identification of funding for rail replacement and track upgrading on the entire line by 1995 and for negotiating purchase of the Fullerton-San Diego portion from Santa Fe. Santa Fe’s main east-west transcontinental rail line runs between Los Angeles and Fullerton. The line south from Fullerton to San Diego is a predominantly single-track branch line.

- Determination of the financial requirements for separate commute rail service between Orange County and downtown Los Angeles and between Oceanside and San Diego.

- Expansion of Amtrak service on the entire line from 7 to 10 daily round trips by 1995.