Freight Railroad Link to East Under Repair; Big Boost to Port Business Is Expected

San Diego’s direct rail route to the east--San Diego & Imperial Valley Railroad--is under repair and the freight trains are expected to be rolling next year, reviving San Diego’s sagging commercial shipping operations.

The repairs could make San Diego a major competitor in the Southern California port business, rail officials said Wednesday.

The 130-mile-long railroad runs south from the Santa Fe Depot, past Port of San Diego loading facilities and into Mexico. It re-enters the United States near Campo, travels east through Carrizo Gorge, and links up with the Southern Pacific main line at Plaster City in Imperial County.

The railroad’s general manager, Dick Engle, said two major bridges in the mountains are being rejuvenated at a cost of $418,000. Two mountain tunnels, damaged by fire in 1985 and 1987, remain to be repaired.

Completion of the repairs next year will allow the rail company to offer direct freight service to San Diego port facilities, Engle said, and create a boom in San Diego’s import-export business.

Owners of the rail line, the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, use metropolitan stretches of the track to run San Diego Trolley passenger service from downtown San Diego south to San Ysidro and east to El Cajon, and lease the freight service franchise to SD&IV;, which carries 600 freight cars annually for customers in Baja California and San Diego on the western segment of the line.

Engle, whose company has held the freight franchise since October, 1984, predicted that completion of repairs on the eastern segment of the line will lure major shipping clients, including U.S. Gypsum and seven overseas auto makers, to San Diego. He has had interested inquiries from all eight and a lot of other shippers seeking a more direct land-sea route for import-export trade, he said.

When the through freight service is operating, linking San Diego with Southern Pacific, which serves almost every major city in the United States, “we may become the preferred port of entry for international companies wishing to avoid the longer shipping times necessary when using Long Beach and Los Angeles ports,” Engle said.

Bill Stonehouse, San Diego Unified Port District director of trade development, agreed that the SD&IV; may provide a big boost to port trade.

Automobiles brought in by ship to San Diego could be transferred directly to rail cars for distribution throughout the United States, he said, “and probably faster and slightly cheaper than Long Beach or Los Angeles prices.”

Shipments that now go out of San Diego harbor or leave here by rail must detour through the Los Angeles area before linking up with major rail networks, Engle said. The longer shipping distance puts San Diego at a competitive disadvantage for most commercial shipping.

Engle predicted that increasing commuter and passenger service on the San Diego-Los Angeles rail line will make SD&IV; even more important as a freight line.

After five years of effort, Engle said, SD&IV; is back on track.

“Someone approached me about buying the franchise, and I told him, ‘No way.’ We are sitting on a gold mine here.”

Jack Limber, MTDB general counsel, said there are a few hills yet to climb, including settlement of an insurance claim to repair the two tunnels, an agreement with Mexican officials to allow shipments through the Baja segment of the line and keeping the rail line in operating order.

The railroad line was built in 1906 by sugar baron John D. Spreckels and has been beset with problems, fires and floods. Except for six months in 1983, the line has been closed since 1976, when several miles of track were washed out near Plaster City by a freak hurricane. The freight operator who managed to get the line up and operating lost $150,000 a month during the brief operation and sought a subsidy to continue operations.

Limber said that, although he cannot predict when the SD&IV; will reopen freight service, he credits Engle and the other officials for aggressive action in overcoming the obstacles that had halted other operators.