Quote:
Originally Posted by SAN Man
Thoughts on commuter rail expansion?
I was surprised to learn that the Coaster only has 4,200 average daily riders and this is along one of the most congested and along the highly populated coastal region, that overlaps with LA's MetroLink commuter rail in Oceanside.
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The "commuter rail" in SANDAG's plan seems more like BART, as it will have trains every 10 minutes or better and probably be electric and fully grade separated.
I'm glad Ikhrata realized building the purple line in the I-805 median was a bad idea and the new plan has the purple line running on arterial roads. My skepticism remains, though about Kearny Mesa, if it will actually density quickly enough by 2035 to serve as an anchor for the purple line. I just really wish the purple line will actually go to SDSU Mission Valley, the biggest TOD in the county.
I would, however, build the purple line as another trolley line. Commuter rail usually means stations that are several miles apart from each other. Sure you can take a bus several miles to the nearest commuter rail station, but wouldn't it be so much better if you could just walk or bike half a mile or so to the nearest Trolley station? Which is important since the Purple Line will serve dense areas like Mid City and Western Chula Vista/National City.
Metrolink lines average 36 mph, or so. That's actually not much faster than Seattle's Link light rail outside of Downtown and Rainier Valley. Take Northgate Link, which has a mile between stations but averages 34 mph throughout the 4.3 miles. Northgate Link achieves those speeds because it has no sharp turns and is fully grade separated.
The Mid Coast Trolley is also fully grade separated, and it goes pretty fast until you hit University City. That portion averages only 20 mph because the stations are about 0.6 miles apart and there's lots of tight curves.
So SANDAG should copy Seattle's Link when building the Purple Line. An LRT system would be able to provide 5 minute frequencies or better (which is what Seattle's alibi will do). More frequent than a commuter train. And despite having smaller trains, an LRT would likely have at least as much capacity as a commuter rail because it comes more often.
Now for the Coaster: a tunnel through Del Mar is necessary. I don't know about electrifying the line, though. It's silly to think that the Coaster will become the ridership magnet that Caltrain is. (Caltrain's single line gets more ridership than all seven Metrolink Lines combined!) The secret to Caltrain's success? Downtown SF. Outside of Greater NYC, there is no US metro statistical area that has as much of its employment concentrated downtown as SF-Oakland does*. Downtown San Diego, on the other hand, has a much smaller regional employment share.
And North County is full of NIMBY suburbs, so beefing up Coaster in those areas will be much more controversial than building the purple line.
*Source:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...nenM41wPBQ0EkL