San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
AMTRAK RIDERS USE ‘BUS BRIDGE’ TO GO NORTH
San Clemente railroad segment remains closed as stabilization work continues
The “bus bridge” between Oceanside and Irvine has been going for more than three months now, but Amtrak riders seem to be taking it in stride.
It’s the only way for train passengers between San Diego and Orange counties to get around the landslide stabilization project in San Clemente, which is likely to continue another month or longer.
“It really doesn’t bother me at all,” said a rider named Larry, who only gave his first name. He said he rides the train about once a month to San Diego from his home in Fullerton in Orange County.
“You walk about 20 steps and get on a bus,” he said Wednesday during the brief stopover at the Oceanside Transit Center. “It’s pretty quick.”
The bus portion of the trip takes about one hour, according to the Amtrak schedule. Amtrak contracts with Luxbus America and uses 56-seat “coaches” with restrooms, cargo holds, overhead luggage bays, handicapped access and more.
The total trip — train from Fullerton to Irvine, bus from Irvine to Oceanside, train from Oceanside to Santa Fe Station in San Diego, or vice versa — takes two-and-a-half to three hours depending on the time of day and costs about $36 one-way for coach or $56 for business class.
Another passenger, Malik Drammh, said Wednesday it was his first time riding Amtrak. He was traveling one-way from Los Angeles to San Diego and planned to drive back in his brother’s car.
The three-legged trip was a surprise, but not a problem, he said.
“I wasn’t really worried about it,” he said.
Somewhere between 50 and 100 people use the bus bridge on each Amtrak Surfliner run between San Diego and Los Angeles depending on the time and day, said a ticket agent at the Oceanside station.
The detour, which takes passengers in buses onto Interstate 5, has been in place since the end of September, when new movement was de