Train Line May Ease I-5 Morning Rush : New Commuter System Expected in November

Cardiff resident Helene Kornblatt commuted to her office in San Diego by bus for several years because, she confessed, “Basically, I hate to drive. And besides, I’d rather read a book.”

She was raised in the East where few people ever consider taking their cars into the city, and she commuted by bus and by ferry from Marin County into San Francisco before she moved to North County 10 years ago.

“I took the bus to work (in the Old Town area of San Diego) for about three years, but with buses you are still out there on the busy freeway, competing with cars.

“As the freeways became more crowded, they kept revising the bus schedules because they couldn’t keep up, couldn’t get there as fast as they had before,” she explained.

In a couple of years, Kornblatt and other North Coast residents will have an alternative to the freeway crunch: commuter trains operating on the coastline Santa Fe Railway tracks from Oceanside to San Diego in the morning rush-hour traffic and northward from San Diego to Oceanside during the late afternoon and early evening return. Preparations are rolling along smoothly, transportation planners say, with schedules, prices and stations already tentatively in place.

Kornblatt, a transportation consultant, has studied the North County area and believes that many drivers out there will gladly exchange their car keys for a monthly commuter train pass.

“Speaking solely as a commuter, I’d much rather spend my commuting time reading a book or a newspaper, and that’s what most people do in other parts of the country. We’ve just never had a chance here to enjoy a train ride to work. . . . And I think the younger generation, who have never ridden trains, will want to ride them, too. There’s something romantic about a train.”

Peter Aadland, North County Transit District spokesman and rail planner, said that weekday commuter service from Oceanside to San Diego and back again is scheduled to start in November, 1990, and he hopes Kornblatt is correct when she predicts “an explosion in ridership” when the trains begin to roll.

With freeway congestion increasing, gasoline prices rising and air pollution controls against single-occupant cars in the offing, Aadland sees nothing but success for the North County commuter rail line.

“There are much more productive ways to spend two hours a day than driving in traffic,” he said. “Two hours more sleep might be nice, and you would be able to do that on the train.”

Aadland said that the proposed commuter line, a $70-million-dollar project funded from a half-cent sales tax increase passed by county voters in 1987, should be ready to roll on schedule.

Four or five double-decker commuter trains will take off from Oceanside, starting at 6 a.m. each weekday and at half-hour intervals until 8 a.m. They will travel the scenic coastline, offering million-dollar views of the surf and the seaside communities along the northern San Diego County coast, stopping at six or seven intermediate stations before reaching the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego an hour later.

(Transit officials are looking into the possibility of trimming down a couple of curves on the present Santa Fe alignment to bring the train time down to 45 to 50 minutes--about a normal rush-hour commute on the freeway.)

Then, each weekday afternoon and evening, the commuter system will reverse itself, bringing workers back to their North County bedroom communities.

The trains will be diesel-powered, matching the Amtrak rolling stock, and capable of handling as many cars as the commuter load calls for. They will be noisier than the silent San Diego Trolleys, but capable of carrying heavier loads and climbing steeper grades.

The tracks--which local transit agencies are now negotiating to buy from Santa Fe Railway--will be one continuous welded rail, to avoid the usual bumping rhythm on trains.

The railroad cars will be double-deckers with tinted windows and air conditioning. Aadland pledges they will be “clean, comfortable, efficient and nice,” but stops short of adjectives such as “plush” “roomy” or “sumptuous.”

The commuter stations will be modest. A platform, 500 feet long and expandable to 1,000 feet; a canopy, telephones, a ticket-vending machine, trash cans, plenty of free parking and a yet-to-be-determined security system.

Commuter stations will be located at:

* The present Oceanside Transit Center, on Cleveland Street south of Mission Avenue. A pedestrian tunnel under the tracks and an additional platform will be added on the west side of the train tracks.

* Downtown Carlsbad, north of Grand Avenue.

* South Carlsbad at Poinsettia Lane.

* Encinitas, off Vulcan Avenue near the La Paloma Theater.

* Solana Beach, north of Lomas Santa Fe. This station is planned as a private-public venture with a number of shops and perhaps a restaurant added to the commuter station.

* Sorrento Valley, under the Interstate 5-805 junction in Sorrento Valley.

* Miramar Road, just west of I-15 (which might be deleted if the tracks are re-routed).

* Old Town, south of Interstate 8.

* Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego at Broadway and Kettner.

Aadland said that a station may be added at the San Diego Convention Center so North County residents could travel to the doorstep of the bayside complex for special events there.

A monthly pass is expected to cost about $80--less than the typical cost of a monthly parking space in downtown San Diego. One-way tickets will range from about $3 down to $1.50, depending on the length of the ride. By comparison, an Amtrak ticket from Oceanside to San Diego costs $9.

Because the transit districts in the county have developed a regional fare structure, train commuters will be able to transfer, usually without cost, to buses or trolleys, to complete their daily commute, Aadland said. A commuter could hop a bus near his or her home in Carlsbad to the train station, ride the train downtown, then board a trolley or bus to work, all on the same commuter ticket.

Bus routes will be revised to cater to the commuter trains once they go into service, Aadland said. After all, he explained, while bus ridership depends almost entirely on a captive clientele--without cars--the future train commuter must be wooed away from his or her automobile with the prospect of comfort and convenience of this new mode of mass transit.

Initial ridership on the commuter trains is estimated at slightly less than 2,000 riders a day, with projections for the year 2010 set at 4,100 riders.

These estimates are modest, Aadland said, “and we would like to be pleasantly surprised” by healthier ridership numbers.

Increasing peak-hour traffic on Interstate 5 will boost commuter train travel, he said. Soon-to-be-implemented employer sanctions against allowing workers to commute in single-occupant cars will add incentives for workers to get out of their cars and onto the trains.

Aadland predicted that larger businesses might start sending vans to meet commuter trains at the station. A Golden Triangle or Mission Valley jitney service, provided by employers in the fast-growing areas, might turn the trick and prevent employers from facing stiff fines from the Air Pollution Control District if they fail to cut down on employee auto use.

In the future, commuter train service will be expanded eastward from Oceanside to Escondido, serving several colleges and universities, many businesses and two shopping centers. The eastern end of the train line--North County Fair shopping center in southern Escondido--might become the northern terminus of an I-15 corridor trolley system, depending on a feasibility study of the project.

Ultimately there will be 83 miles of trolley lines and 62 miles of commuter trains linking most of the county, Limber said.

Carlsbad Councilwoman Ann Kulchin, a commuter-rail advocate for years, admits that there were some unconvinced merchants in her coastal city when it was first announced that there would be a station smack-dab in the center of town.

“They were worried about all the cars and traffic converging at Grand Avenue at first, but they are convinced now that it won’t be a problem,” Kulchin said. “People will arrive for the commuter trains early, before the shops are open. Yes, there will be a lot of traffic but it won’t be a problem at that hour in the morning.

“I see commuter rail as a win-win proposition and the only way to get so many cars off Interstate 5.”