That’s right folks, you read it here first. The Metro Link trains will be sliding south of Oceanside for the very first time ever this weekend to serve the Del Mar horse races, although they’ll technically be stopping in Solana Beach as Del Mar kicked the trains out about 10 years ago… A free shuttle takes people to and from the Solana Beach station and the track. This service will run on weekends through the end of the race season in early September and the fares are a great bargain. Round trip from the L.A. area is $28 and from Oceanside is just $8 inclusive of the shuttle services. Combined with the new Sunday Coaster service, race fans should have some nice options for avoiding the traffic and parking hassles getting to the track.
The future holds great promise for more and better cooperation between AMTRAK, Coaster, and Metro Link services and the plan is that Coaster trains will go all the way to L.A. while Metro Link trains will go all the way to San Diego, and AMTRAK can introduce limited stop higher speed / more rapid service between L.A. and San Diego. All of this should give the commuting and the inter-city travelling public better travel choices.
Enjoy!!
Comments 6
Enough of the transit propaganda Stocks. Rail sucks.
Speaking of Strange White Things.
I like rail. When I lived a block away from the Oceanside Transit Center, I used Amtrak, the Coaster and MetroLink all the time. I still take rail when going to Metropolitan Water District meetings in LA — Union Station is adjacent to the headquarters.
The immensely costly state high-speed rail project is another matter entirely.
Bradley, liking rail is quite different from JUSTIFYING rail — especially compared to the alternatives (primarily buses). Seldom do people live so close to a transit center, of course — especially in auto-oriented Southern California. You lucked out — especially since the trains GO where you want (at least some of the time).
The per passenger mile subsidy for passenger rail is several times (sometimes MANY times) the subsidy per mile for buses — and buses can be far more flexible as to where they go.
That being said, I STRONGLY encourage people to ride the rails — as the increased ridership costs taxpayers zero, and indeed the fares directly reduce the amount of (but not the need for) taxpayer operating subsidies.
Richard, I know, I know. Believe me, I know.
While Buses do cost less to purchase than a trolley, they also hold fewer people per paid driver and as such are more expensive per paying passenger to operate.
The facts of the trolley serving SDSU are that the trolley has
more than 10X the ridership of the bus lines
It replaced.