Escondido-Oceanside Train Back on Track

It was a good idea 100 years ago, and it’s an even better idea now: a passenger train linking inland Escondido with the coast at Oceanside.

In the early days, the spur track did double duty. The “Cannon Ball Express” lugged supplies to the inland valley, which was rapidly turning into a boom town, returning to the coast with produce bound for markets in San Diego and Los Angeles.

From its first run on July 4, 1888, the railroad also served as a people-mover, luring settlers to the valley with low-cost, round-trip excursions--$3 from Los Angeles to Escondido, $1.50 from San Diego to Escondido--and linking inland residents with the rest of the world.

Today’s version of the Cannon Ball will be sleeker, quieter, faster and more expensive than its early counterpart, but it will serve the similar purpose of speeding North County travelers between the coast and the inland.

North County Transit District officials are touting the railroad as an alternative to congested California 78, North County’s only east-west freeway. The passenger service, connecting with commuter trains from Oceanside to San Diego and with Amtrak service both north and south, is an attempt to reduce traffic on the freeways.

Passenger service along the 22-mile Oceanside-to-Escondido line was discontinued in 1946, when ridership dwindled as the automobile took over as the primary method of travel. But experience with the San Diego Trolley system and other interurban transit systems indicates that the rail line may lure an increasing number of riders as highways become more crowded and parking more difficult. North County transit officials plan to put the new system in service when traffic volume on California 78 reaches a level that would cause a sizable number of motorists to switch to rail.

Plans are to have the railway in operation by 1995, with trains running at 30-minute intervals, traveling at a maximum 45 m.p.h. and making 17 stops in Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido for a one-way trip of about 45 minutes.

The final stop would be in the vicinity of North County Fair shopping center in southern Escondido, but long-range plans call for extending the line south along Interstate 15 to San Diego. Among other proposed stops are Palomar Community College and the future California State University campus, both in San Marcos.

In an environmental impact study of the proposed rail route, consultant Helene Kornblatt pointed to some potential visual, noise and environmental problems along the route, but said that they could be mitigated.

All stations along the route, which roughly parallels California 78 on the north, would have parking, except for a spur track serving the future San Marcos State University campus. About 200 spaces per station are planned. Property for two of the westerly stations has already been acquired.

The estimated $30 million cost of the Oceanside-Escondido rail line would come from a portion of the half-cent sales tax increase for transportation approved by county voters two years ago, transit officials said.

Estimates of the daily number of riders range from 14,700 to 17,300 by 2000.

The spur track is owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, but North County transit officials plan to buy the line or to lease it for passenger service.

Copies of the environmental impact report have been distributed to about 200 agencies and individuals affected by the project, and a public hearing on the project will be held after Feb. 22.