San Diego trolley’s growing reach
New transit line that connects major destinations is called a ‘game-changer.’
SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s often-criticized transit system will take what many are calling a monumental step forward later this month with a new trolley line connecting Old Town to La Jolla, UC San Diego, Mission Bay Park, Pacific Beach and Clairemont.
The $2.2-billion line has the potential to reduce notorious traffic congestion in the Golden Triangle, boost beach access for low-income areas and help solve San Diego’s housing crisis by spurring high-rise projects along much of its route.
The new 11-mile route fixes major flaws in local transit by connecting the entire trolley system to the region’s No. 1 employment center — University City and Sorrento Valley — and the region’s largest institution of higher learning — UCSD.
The impact goes beyond bringing mass transit to neighborhoods near the nine new trolley stations. Every stop on the city’s other trolley routes gets a big boost by becoming connected to popular new destinations like Westfield UTC and the VA Medical Center.
Residents of Chula Vista, El Cajon and Santee who work in the Golden Triangle will now have an alternative to commuting by car. The same is true for UCSD students living in those areas and veterans who need medical care at the VA.
Commuting by trolley will also become an option for people living in University City, Pacific Beach and Clairemont who work downtown, the region’s No. 3 jobs center, or in Mission Valley, the fourth-biggest employment cluster in the city.
Residents in those neighborhoods will also be able to take the trolley to Little Italy, one of the region’s premier dining destinations. Padres games at Petco Park and San Diego State games at the school’s new stadium in eastern Mission Valley also will be more widely accessible by trolley.
“It’s created options that truly don’t exist today,” said Coleen Clementson, director of regional planning for the San Diego Association of Governments. “One thing we hear is that transit doesn’t go to the places people need to go. Now we’ve added some really important destinations to our light-rail system.”
Because it’s the first trolley line in San Diego to run through mostly high-income neighborhoods and areas with quality jobs, Clementson said it has a chance to attract riders who take transit by choice rather than because they can’t afford a car.
The appealing destinations on the route will help attract those so-called “choice” riders, who made up just 36 percent of local transit users in a recent SANDAG survey.
“The opportunity for the ‘choice’ rider is enormous,” Clementson said. “What really elevates this extension is the kinds of stations we’re talking about — the places, the connections — for people who are not transit-dependent.”
One reason regional planners are optimistic the new trolley line can attract “choice” riders is because some commutes on the new line will actually be quicker than by car, something people don’t typically expect of San Diego’s transit system.
That’s because all the stations on the new line are elevated, eliminating the need for at-grade crossings that require the trains on San Diego’s other trolley lines to either slow down or stop multiple times.
A commute from UCSD to downtown’s Santa Fe station on the new line is estimated at 29 minutes, less time than it takes to travel between those two places by car during rush hour, said Sharon Humphreys, SANDAG’s director of engineering and construction.
While a car might be faster at times when the freeway isn’t congested, such as early afternoons, the trolley will be more reliable because it isn’t as vulnerable to a crash or other unforeseen problems, she said.
In some cases, car commuters stuck in congestion on Interstate 5 will be able to look up at the trains on the new trolley line moving faster than they are, which could persuade some commuters to give the new trolley a try, Humphreys said.
UCSD students receive free passes for all public transit as part of the student fees they pay, making local officials optimistic students will ride the new trolley in large numbers.
Removing thousands of UCSD students from the freeway would reduce notorious congestion near the campus, but SANDAG officials said they won’t know how much the new trolley will help boost traffic flow through the Golden Triangle until the new trolley line has been up and running a while.
The new trolley line’s vast potential will make its relative success or failure that much more important, said Congressman Scott Peters (D-San Diego).
“It really could be a gamechanger because of the unprecedented opportunity to connect jobs and housing,” Peters said. “But it will also be a ‘proof-point,’ where we need to show taxpayers that we spent their money wisely.”
The $2.17-billion project cost was a roughly equal split between local and federal sources. Just under $1.2 billion, 52%, came from Transnet, the county’s halfcent sales tax surcharge, and just over $1 billion, 48%, came from federal grants.
Peters said he’s cautiously optimistic that “choice” riders will use the trolley because it will be fast and cheaper than commuting by car.
“If it’s competitive, they will take transit,” he said.
The new trolley line comes at an ideal time for two crucial city initiatives: a plan to solve a housing-affordability crisis with highrise buildings near transit and a plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by reducing commuting by vehicle.
The San Diego City Council has approved a variety of incentives in recent years to encourage developers to build high-rise condominium and apartment buildings near transit lines.
The goal is to build more housing without creating the sprawl and traffic congestion that comes when new homes are built in areas that can only be accessed by car.
Allowing dense housing along transit lines also aims to help San Diego meet the goals of its legally binding climate action plan, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gases by shifting many car commuters to transit, cycling and walking.
The city’s incentives for housing along transit lines make it likely that high-rise housing will be built along the new trolley line much faster than it has been along the region’s last new trolley line — the green line through Mission Valley, which was completed in 2005.
“The timing of this couldn’t be better,” said Ray Major, SANDAG’s chief of data and analytics. “Everyone is now focused on transit-oriented development.”
The new line’s proximity to the beach and high-paying jobs is also likely to spur housing construction more quickly than along other trolley routes built in locations less desirable to potential buyers and tenants, officials said.
Mayor Todd Gloria said the new trolley line dovetails with other city goals, including social equity. It boosts access to jobs, the beach and UCSD from the mostly lowincome southern and eastern parts of the city, he said.
“In my view, it’s an equity train,” he said. “A UCSD diploma is a ticket to the middle class, and so are the jobs over there. That area is just a tremendous cluster of opportunity.”
He said access to the beach is also about equity, stressing that many children in low-income neighborhoods of San Diego have never seen the beach. Now there will be a trolley line that takes them to the eastern edge of Mission Bay Park, just over two miles from the beach.
City and neighborhood leaders have lobbied for bridges over I-5 from new trolley stations at Balboa Avenue and Clairemont Drive to make access to the beach safer and more appealing.
The mayor said additional transit projects beyond the new trolley line are badly needed in San Diego, such as a connection from the trolley to San Diego International Airport.
But he said the new line is a key step in San Diego’s maturation from a small town.
“This new trolley line is big-city stuff,” he said. “It achieves multiple goals at once. Our transit system still won’t look like New York’s or San Francisco’s, but we are trying to get there.”
Humphreys, the SANDAG official, agreed.
“What San Diego is going through right now is a natural evolution of a maturing city,” she said. “We are getting to be a bigger city, and in bigger cities you can’t get people around by cars.”
Many San Diegans, especially those living in suburban areas, repeatedly reject such notions. They say that if they wanted to live in Manhattan, they would move to Manhattan.
Peters said roads alone can’t solve San Diego’s problems as the region’s birth rate continues to increase the scarcity of housing, parking and open space.
“We need housing that has fewer parking spots and takes up less space, so transit has to be part of the plan,” he said.