[PRCo] San Diego trolley

[Bob Rathke]

Fred,

Since you asked - and encouraged me to go off topic....:-)

First, San Diego's Metropolitan Transit System offers an excellent pocket 
size folder that presents all the LRV schedules and an easy to understand 
map of the rail system on one large, foldable sheet of paper.  Answers to 
all of your schedule, location and fare questions are on that sheet.

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt downtown for the week, and had a rental car, 
but we really didn't need it.  We saw everything we wanted to see via foot, 
the LRV, the Coaster railroad line, and sightseeing buses and boats. Plus 
great weather that didn't vary more than a few degrees from day to day - 78 
degrees during the day and a breezy 60 degrees at night.

The LRV system - called "trolleys" in San Diego - is very well run.  Trains 
(mostly three articulated car sets with a single operator) run on time and 
are very crowded throughout the day.  The  Siemens Duwag equipment reminds 
my of the Pittsburgh LRV.

During mid-day, the original 1000 series cars (1981) run, especially on the 
Blue Line from San Ysidro (Tijuana, Mexico) to San Diego and Old Town (there 
are connections at both stations to the heavy rail Coaster trains between 
San Diego and Oceanside).  The newer 2000 series cars appear on the Orange 
Line from San Diego to El Cajon.  The brand new 3000 series cars are 
supposed to run on the new Green Line (Old Town to Santee), but I saw 3000's 
on the Orange Line, and older cars were often on the Green Line.  Sometime 
soon, no one will care which cars run on which lines.

Impressions: the San Diego trolley system is well run, clean, on time, and 
crowded.  Tickets are purchased on the station platforms, and private 
security guards constantly board and re-board trains to check if passengers 
have tickets.  In one 30-minute ride, four different guards asked to see my 
ticket.  MTS is serious about passengers paying their fares.

The MTS map is deceptively simple.  Its route lines imply that trolleys loop 
around downtown and have a couple of branches, but the trolley system is far 
reaching.  We rode all three lines in one day, and it took about seven 
hours - give yourself at least 60 minutes for a ONE-WAY trip on each of the 
three lines, maybe more time if you miss a connection at a 15-minute headway 
time of day.

The new Green Line from Old Town to Santee opened on July 8, and completes a 
long-anticipated loop among the three lines around San Diego.  The Green 
Line shares the outer (El Cajon) end of the Orange line, and features some 
impressive - including underground - stations.  There are several classic 
railroad stations on the Orange and Green lines that are from the old 
railroad ROW days, and these stations are now being utilited by the trolley 
system.

I was fortunate to be on a Green Line rush hour train that (inbound) 
continued beyond Old Town to the Santa Fe downtown depot, and then went on 
the Orange line to the stop opposite the Hyatt Hotel.  This was special rush 
service that I hope will be incorporated into the regular scheduling of 
Green/Blue/Orange line trains from Old Town to the Santa Fe depot.

Downtown, there are five active tracks in the retored Stana Fe station - one 
for Amtrak,
two for Coaster, and two for the trolley.  The platforms are open to the 
public and very busy - you can go from one platform to another as trains 
arrive and depart.  The station interior is a gem - the Amtrak ticket office 
is insdie, but you buy Coaster and trolley tickets from vending machines on 
the platforms.

I realize that a map would be helpful to understanding this trolley routing. 
I can send a scan of an MTS map to anyone who contacts me off-list.  I took 
nearly 500 photos in San Diego, so let me know if you'd like to see any of 
them

The bottom line: I was impressed with what I saw and rode in San Diego. A 
great vacation.

And...I ate only seafood for the eight days I was there.  I had my first 
meat sandwich after returning to Chicago.

Bob 8/9/05
-----------------------------
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 5:51 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Anybody Out There?


> So what.  Tell me your opinions of the new Green line.  Tell me how they 
> are
> running it in relation to the other lines.
>
> Bob Rathke wrote:
>
>> No heat in Chicago.  It's 63 degrees tonight, and very pleasant.  I've 
>> been
>> sitting on the porch in the evenings, so I haven't been online.
>>
>> Was in San Diego for the last week in July, and rode the LRV's including 
>> the
>> new Green Line that opened in early July.  Sorry, but I just can't get 
>> this
>> e-mail on a Pittsburgh topic.
>>
>> Bob 8/6/05