Rail Upgrading Means Improved Ties Between San Diego, Fullerton

Homes will no longer rattle as trains rush by, railroad cars will no longer bounce at each crossing, and passengers will experience a faster, quieter, smoother and safer ride when traveling between San Diego and the Los Angeles area.

Those are the promises of a four-year track replacement program recently begun on the 107.5 miles of rail between here and Fullerton in Orange County.

The improvements won’t reach San Diego County track, which makes up about 65% of the project, until next year or perhaps 1990. But workers have been replacing track at the Fullerton end with a new, seamless variety since mid-June, according to Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. spokesman Michael Martin.

Old Town by 1992

The $44-million project, which will upgrade and replace track, grade crossings, some switch signals, embankments and rail beds, is scheduled to extend 7 1/2 miles south of Oceanside by 1990 and reach San Diego’s Old Town by 1992.

But, for San Diegans, the project is more than just a smoothing of the trip to Los Angeles. It will also hasten an intra-county commuter rail system scheduled to be in place by 1992, according to Michael Zdon, a senior planner for the San Diego Assn. of Governments.

“We have more at stake than any other county,” Zdon said of the project.

He said the seamless track, which will eliminate the clickety-clack that has mesmerized generations of train travelers, will facilitate commuter rail service within the county, enabling Oceanside residents, for example, to travel to downtown San Diego in about 65 minutes, which he said is competitive with freeway travel time during peak hours.

Amtrak, which has reported a 27% increase in riders on the Los Angeles-San Diego route over the past year, runs few San Diego-bound trains during peak hours, and the earliest morning train into the Santa Fe Depot arrives at 9 o’clock, Zdon said.

“It doesn’t take anyone with super insight to see that, when you’re sitting on Interstate 5, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, going 2 miles per hour and an Amtrak trains goes by at 90, that that’s the way to go,” said Santa Fe spokesman Martin.

Role in Rail Project

The decision to upgrade the Fullerton-to-San Diego track played a major role in facilitating plans for the $70-million San Diego County commuter rail project, which will be funded by a half-cent sales tax increase that became effective in April.

About half the financing for the overhaul is coming from Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties and from Amtrak and Santa Fe, Martin said. The rest is being provided through the state’s transit capital improvement program.

The track along the route is more than 40 years old, Martin said, and, although still safe, the number of trains making daily round trips on it has increased from three to eight since Amtrak began using it in 1971. Next to New York-Washington, it is the most traveled route in the nation, Martin said.

Besides improving ride quality and safety, the upgrading will cut travel times by making higher speeds possible. Martin said the new track also is expected to cut noise and maintenance costs.

The first phase of the project, the replacement of 12 miles of track between Fullerton and Santa Ana, is scheduled for completion sometime in the fall, he said.

Grade crossings--especially wooden ones--that in some places have become dangerous because of erosion and overuse, will be replaced by rubberized crossing pads, he said.

In addition to installing continuous welded rail, in which the connections are fused instead of abutted, crews are also replacing worn ties, sifting and reballasting gravel and cleaning and leveling the rail bed.

Times Staff Writer Eric Healy contributed to this report.