INTRO: Julian Wolinsky reports from San Diego
ONE OF the final pieces of San Diego’s light rail network as envisaged nearly 30 years ago was dedicated on July 8, when an S70 low-floor LRV burst through a banner at San Diego State University station.
Built at a cost of $506m, the 9·5 km Mission Valley East extension runs from the former terminus at Mission San Diego to meet the Orange Line in La Mesa, completing a route along the busy Interstate 8 corridor. The completed Mission Valley route is served by a new Green Line, which links the Old Town intermodal transit centre with Santee. San Diego Metropolitan Transit System has taken delivery of 11 Siemens S70 Avanto cars, which will work the Green Line with earlier U2 and SD100 cars.
The dedication ceremony was attended by more than 1000 invited guests. SDSU is the network’s first underground station, situated more than 12m beneath a landscaped plaza in the middle of the hill-top campus. The station is located in a 1220 m tunnel, which was built using cut and cover for 915m and NATM for the other 305m. The rest of the route is at grade or on viaduct.
SDSU is expected to generate 4300 weekday trips by students, staff and visitors. Overall, MTS officials are forecasting that the extension will add more than 11000 journeys each weekday, bringing the network’s average daily ridership to 101000.
With four stations, the Mission Valley East segment opened almost exactly 24 years after the initial light rail line from the city centre to the Mexican frontier at San Ysidro.
The Green Line began revenue service on July 10 after a day of free rides. The revised service pattern sees the Blue Line from San Ysidro cut back from Mission San Diego to terminate at Old Town, although it will be extended to Qualcomm Stadium during weekday peak hours. The Orange Line remains almost unchanged, although its eastern terminus has been truncated by one station from Santee to Gillespie Field.
The four new stations have ticket vending machines from Cubic Transportation Systems that are designed to support credit/debit card payment and contactless smart cards in future, although they are currently configured only for cash payments. They are ready for MTS to launch a county-wide smart card-based ticketing system being delivered by Cubic, which will allow seamless travel on light rail, bus and Coaster commuter rail services using a common smart card.
The latest addition brings the network to 86·9 route-km, with one more extension in the advanced planning stage. The Mid-Coast Line will run north from Old Town to La Jolla, serving the University of California’s San Diego campus together with a large concentration of offices, housing and a regional shopping centre.
