San Diego Trolley

The **San Diego Trolley** (reporting mark **SDTI**) is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. It is known colloquially as "The Trolley". The Trolley's operator, **San Diego Trolley, Inc.** (SDTI), is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The Trolley began service on July 26, 1981, making it the oldest of the second-generation light rail systems in the United States. The Trolley system serves 53 stations, comprises 53.5 miles (86.1 km) of route, three primary lines (UC San Diego Blue Line, Orange Line, and Sycuan Green Line) that operate daily, and one heritage line (Silver Line) that operates on a circuit of downtown on select days. In 2019, the Trolley had the fifth highest ridership of light rail systems in the United States, with 38,047,300 annual rides, an average of 117,700 rides per weekday.

## History & Planning

Electric rail service in San Diego traces its roots back to 1891 when John D. Spreckels incorporated the San Diego Electric Railway. San Diego's streetcar system had been replaced with buses in 1949, and by 1966 the local bus company, San Diego Transit, was facing a financial crisis and public takeover.

Planning for mass transit in the San Diego region began in 1966 under the auspices of the Comprehensive Planning Organization (CPO, now known as the San Diego Association of Governments, SANDAG), an intergovernmental agency of 13 cities and San Diego County.

Over the next decade, the CPO researched various technologies were studied including improvements to local buses, express buses, heavy rail, light rail, and advanced technologies. The CPO also closely studied the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system, then under construction. Ultimately, the early studies went nowhere due to disagreements between stakeholders and a lack of funding.

In 1975, the CPO published the Regional Transportation Plan which included 58-mile (93 km) intermediate capacity fixed guideway system (a untested technology at the time) at a cost of $1.5 billion.

On September 10, 1976, nature intervened, setting off a chain of events that would help decide the corridor to be used.

At the same time, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors became concerned about the potential loss of freight service on the SD&AE, which was seen as vital to the county's economic interests and the continued viability of San Diego as a deep-water port. The county commissioned its own study to examine using a portion of the SD&AE tracks for passenger service which would share the track with freight services, the motivation being the transit services could share the costs of maintaining the tracks. San Diego County proposed operating either commuter rail trains or self-powered diesel rail cars.

## Creation & Expansion

In 1978, the Interstate Commerce Commission denied the request to abandon the SD&AE, prompting Southern Pacific to offer the railroad for sale to anyone willing to maintain freight operations on the line. The MTDB stepped in and offered to buy the SD&AE for $18.1 million if the Southern Pacific fully repaired the hurricane-damaged line. The deal closed on August 20, 1979, with the final acquisition occurring on November 1, 1979. The MTDB quickly secured a deal with the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad to continue freight service along the line.

The purchase gave MTDB ownership two sections of right-of-way that could be used for mass transit: the SD&AE Main Line from Downtown San Diego to San Ysidro, and the SD&AE La Mesa Branch from Downtown San Diego to El Cajon.

With all the planning in place, construction of the 15.9-mile (25.6 km) "South Line" transit corridor (today's Blue Line) was able to begin just one month after acquisition in December 1979 and would be accomplished in two phases.

The first phase of the project cost $86 million, which included the purchase of the SD&AE, 14 light rail vehicles, construction of a single-tracked electrified light rail line along the 14.2-mile (22.9 km) SD&AE Main Line and construction of a 1.7-mile (2.7 km) section of new street running tracks in Downtown San Diego. To control costs, only minor rehabilitation was conducted on the SD&AE corridor, with the MTDB replacing about 40% of the ties, welding the jointed rail, constructing electric catenaries, and installing an absolute block signal system.

Funding for the project came entirely from Transportation Development Act state sales tax and local gas tax revenues. Federal funds were not actively sought due to the locally perceived notion that San Diego would not qualify due to low population densities, uncongested highways, and undefined corridors.

## Connections

The San Diego Trolley connects with other public transportation, Most notably Amtrak and COASTER at Santa Fe Depot and Old Town Transit Center stations. the service also connects with the Greyhound on 12th & Imperial and El Cajon Transit Center stations and the North Country Transit District's BREEZE at several stations around La Jolla.

## Service

Trolley service operates on three daily lines: the Blue, Green, and Orange Lines, and travels through 53 stations and 53.5 total miles of double-track rail. A fourth line, the heritage streetcar Silver Line, operates more limited weekday and weekend service, in a clockwise 'circle-loop' around downtown San Diego only.

## Historic Fleet

1001-1071
 Total

## Future Purple Line

The **Purple Line** is a proposed San Diego Trolley line that would run from San Ysidro Transit Center at the United States–Mexico border to Kearny Mesa with a possible extension to Carmel Valley. It would run along, or close to I-805 and I-15. the line would connect with the UC San Diego Blue, Orange and Green Lines respectively.

In April 2011, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) released a draft of its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, which was approved by the SANDAG Board of Directors on October 28, 2011. An inland Trolley line from San Ysidro to Kearny Mesa

## Possible Airport Extension

In January 2013, San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (at the time) and SANDAG conducted talks about a possible trolley extension to San Diego International Airport. SANDAG has been conducting feasibility studies on an extension to Lindbergh Field since 2009. There are many different plans and scenarios for such an extension, but one of the possible scenarios was originally to extend the Orange Line from downtown San Diego up N. Harbor Drive to the passenger terminals on the south side of Lindbergh Field, with possible stops along the way. Talks were then turned down but, however talks have been brought up in Late 2021 of making a New Line that will be extended to the Airport with further expansions west to areas such as Point Loma, Liberty Station and beach communities. with connections with the Sycuan Green Line between the Convention Center station. A optional study analyzed three different options for start up construction, an elevated guideway off Laurel Street, and two underground options at Hawthorne Street.