Oceanside to Escondido Rail Service Proposed

Commuter rail service between Oceanside and Escondido along the current freight railroad spur is the best way to resolve the east-west traffic congestion in North County, the San Diego Assn. of Governments has concluded.

The proposal, the result of a study released by Sandag last month, calls for the acquisition of a Santa Fe Railway track along the California 78 corridor between the two cities.

Betty Laurs, manager of marketing for the North County Transit District, said district staff members have urged approval of the Sandag recommendations by the district’s board at its meeting Thursday.

Sandag staff members say that the rail passenger service along the rail spur is the most feasible and cost-effective method of easing congestion on California 78, and propose that self-contained, diesel-powered coaches be used.

The Sandag study rules out a connection of the east-west rail line to the Plaza Camino Real shopping center in Carlsbad but concedes that rail service to the future San Diego State University campus in San Marcos is feasible.

Trolley Proposed After 2005

Extension of the east-west rail line southward to serve Escondido’s regional shopping center, North County Fair, “should only be considered in coordination with conversion of the service to light rail (trolley) operations,” the report stated. Light rail trolley service is proposed after the year 2005 along the coastal corridor from San Diego north to Oceanside, east to Escondido and south to Mission Valley under the San Diego regional transportation plan.

The North County Transit District expects to receive about $750 million from the recently approved half-cent sales tax levied for road and transit projects countywide. A portion of that amount is budgeted to go toward acquisition of the rail line, which now is used only for weekly freight shipments.

The Sandag study estimates the cost of activating the 20-mile rail spur and acquiring diesel coaches at $48.7 million, plus the cost of acquiring the right of way. Rerouting the rail line to serve Plaza Camino Real, which Sandag recommends against, would increase the cost to $110.9 million. A change in the route to serve the SDSU San Marcos campus would increase the cost to $60.1 million, and extension of the route south to North County Fair would raise the cost to $95.6 million.

Sandag transportation analysts say that a connection to Plaza Camino Real in Carlsbad would not be feasible because of the cost of building railroad tunnels to shunt the service south of California 78 in Oceanside and return to the northerly side of the freeway in Vista.

The additional $62.2-million expenditure to reach the shopping center would yield few additional riders per day, chiefly because the current rail line runs along Oceanside Boulevard, which is a potential high-ridership growth area that would be lost if the rail line were detoured to the Carlsbad mall, according to George Franck, Sandag transportation planner.

Passenger stations with 200-car parking lots would be located about every 1.5 miles along the line, Franck said.

By 2005, the current Oceanside-Escondido rail route would carry 14,700 daily riders, according to the study. An extension to serve the future SDSU campus, at a cost of $11.4 million, would increase daily ridership to 17,300.

The Sandag study recommended that the spur track be used to operate a daily commuter rail service, with improvements in speed and service added as ridership increases.

The study warned that a majority of the initial ridership of the proposed commuter rail line would come from current bus patrons rather than from automobile commuters who now use California 78. Improved commuter service should start with expansion of east-west express bus service until the ridership builds to a daily 8,000 to 10,000 passengers--enough to warrant the start of commuter rail service, Franck said. He estimated that bus ridership would increase to a point that would warrant the rail line be put into service in the late 1990s.

Eventually, the diesel cars would give way to a light rail transit system similar to the San Diego Trolley system, Franck said.

Highway Widening

Other improvements, including the widening of California 78, construction of new access ramps and arterial connections also are planned over the next decade, he said.

Franck will present the Sandag rail study results to the NCTD board at its 4:30 p.m. session Thursday.

A Santa Fe spokesman said that negotiations are continuing with North County Transit officials over purchase of the rail spur. One NCTD offer was turned down by the railroad, according to Mike Martin.