Traffic wrote on Sep 15, 2007 4:32 AM:Let me get this right...they haven't even figured out the exact route yet but the residents are already opposed to the tracks. It looks like they just don't want to be inconvenienced during construction. Once the tunnels are completed it would be impossible to even tell the trains are running. And across the wetlands: I would suspect they would built a viaduct, a type of bridge to span with little impact. Sounds like great plans to me. To heck with the good it will do.

Different from Escondido wrote on Sep 15, 2007 8:06 AM:How different from Escondido. The City Council and Chamber of Commerce in Escondido would welcome any mess like this - power plants, asphalt plants, tenements - tunnels aren’t as geographically fungible as power plants so I guess we are safe. Can we get some of these Del Mar residents to come to Escondido to protect us?

Jean wrote on Sep 15, 2007 8:30 AM:How selfish can you get - just because you have money your life can't be disrupted? Two tracks are needed - maybe the distrupted can go to Europe for 2 years!!

Curious wrote on Sep 15, 2007 9:01 AM:Do nutty people move to Del Mar, or is there something about Del Mar that makes people nutty after they've arrived? Each freight train removes about 90 big-rig trucks from our roads and the Coaster is a huge success. Opposing improvement to the rail corridor in the name of the environment is oxymoronic.

Freeman wrote on Sep 15, 2007 9:20 AM:How typical Del Mar, the city that messes up traffic all summer throughout the county because their through-property is off-limits to San Diego's growth plan. Del Martians need to smell the coffee. So sorry to inconvenience you.

Fred H wrote on Sep 15, 2007 9:50 AM:Del Martians are a quirky breed indeed. Remember when they sued the USMC for flying helicopters over their precious area, and won!? I remember the area from 40-years ago when it was a sleepy little beach town full of charm. No wonder Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante & Desi Arnaz fell in love with the place. Today it is Beverly Hills by the Sea, except more concrete (and attorneys). I am surprised they haven't outlawed horse racing...Sad but this is progress

Careful what you wish for wrote on Sep 15, 2007 10:14 AM:The problem with double tracking is that it sucks up billions of your tax dollars for trains that carry less than 1/100 of a percent of the County's population. THAT is selfish! Wouldn't it make more sense to use those billions to build a system that carries far more people, at far less cost per passenger, without destroying our coastal wetlands. Is it selfish to protect taxpayers from waste, to protect our coastline for our grandchildren?

Gary's "facts" wrote on Sep 15, 2007 10:25 AM:Mr. Gallegos intentionally misrepresents the actual ridership of the Coaster, which is approximately 1/2 of what he says it is. Bureaucrats have a funny way of counting: if you drive to work and take two weeks of vacation per year, he would claim that you are not one person, but 500 "riders". That's how he does his figuring. It is designed to inflate demand and justify boondoggles. That is why, whenever they tell you about ridership, you need to be very careful to parse their words to get at the real numbers.

NIMBYs wrote on Sep 15, 2007 11:02 AM:They are nothing else.

How about wrote on Sep 15, 2007 11:10 AM:commuter rails along the 56 the 78 and the 15! this would tie all the cities together and allow everyone to commute by train.Seems to me this would eliminate the need for more lanes on these roads.Run the tracks right down the center of these freeways, the exposure would motivate commuters stuck in traffic to re think their commute when the train goes whooshing by!This Would also make our bus systems more effective, people inland could actually get somewhere in a decent amount of time!!!

David wrote on Sep 15, 2007 12:15 PM: Why not move the tracks off the fragile bluff, so kids don't cross rail tracks to get to the beach, and the bluff doesn't erode further? Put the tracks along the 5 freeway corridor so that all high-speed, noisy, polluting hazards are in one place. Less danger, better environmentally.

What is selfish? wrote on Sep 15, 2007 12:31 PM:If it is selfish to have spent our own time to purchase private land to save it as a beach front park for all to use, then Del Martians are guilty as charged. If it is selfish to have fought back when they wanted to put a nuclear power plant looming over Torrey Pines State Beach, then we are guilty as charged. If it is selfish to have fought back, and won, when Caltrans wanted to "expand" the old 101 and make it a 14 lane wide interstate, thereby saving every single coastal town and lagoon and beach that we all enjoy, then we are guilty as charged. I only with there were more selfish people.

Stuck up! wrote on Sep 15, 2007 1:08 PM:What a bunch of stuck up self centered NIMBYs. Just fine, "we" have to put up with years of freeway construction for you, but a tunnel, OMG, it's the end of the world, it's just not possible, we're going to HIDE the thing for pete's sake, but thats not good enough. Reminds me of those whiners in the desert who complain about dust from construction projects. .. in the DESERT! The whole place is dusty! OTOH, "rapid bus lines" are the biggest laugh. Who ever heard of a rapid bus? Busses are slugs, they get stuck in the same traffic as the rest of us and further more, you have to deal with NCTD's ridiculous "clockwise" (round in circles) time wasting schedules, when the whole thing is just easier to drive a car. Want rapid transit? Monorails and no schedule, every 10-15 minutes, and make it meaningful, make it actually go someplace. Come on, folks. Not rocket science. Between Del Mar and Solana Beach, the snobs and the story poles. Give me a break. The Del Mar Un-Fair year round.

Greg in Oceanside wrote on Sep 15, 2007 1:38 PM:They're not called Del-Martians for nothing. These self-righteous, arrogant, electic types in Del Mar are very short-sighted for having one of the most well-educated demographics of any city in San Diego county. Like one person said, the trains are actually a success, and if you've ever been on the Coaster you'd see how full the trains are just about every day. It's high-time we look seriously at our future and make every option for expanded rail service a priority. I've been a Coaster rider for about 7 years now, and I've seen the benefit, which certainly outweighs any 'cost' that is associated with it.

Who do you think you are? wrote on Sep 15, 2007 3:42 PM:Residents of Del Mar don't want their "perfect" lives disrupted by progress. How conceited can a group ... be. My money is just as green as yours and you can bet your last dollar none of it will be spent in your city! We quit going to the fair years ago, don't patronize the races any more or any other event there. Why not just put a wall around Del Mar and not let anyone in!

John E wrote on Sep 15, 2007 3:56 PM:Although I am a big fan of the Coaster and used it almost daily when I worked in Sorrento Valley, I understand Del Mar residents' objections. They get all of the noise and other adverse impacts (as I do, myself, living within 2 blocks of the tracks), but they cannot efficiently or conveniently access the system, although it may make sense for them to drive to Sorrento Valley to ride the Coaster to downtown San Diego any time parking is at a premium.

Inland wrote on Sep 15, 2007 4:38 PM:While I think the Coaster is a good thing to have, I feel that the path could be a lot better. Why not expand rail more inland instead of widening it along the coast? Why such anger at Del Mar residents? They have a particular type of community and want to preserve their lifestyle and property values. Seems reasonable to me... I would also love to see a connection of the Coaster to UCSD.

Polar Bear wrote on Sep 15, 2007 4:46 PM:Double tracking in 2030? This is like only 100 years behind Europe. Good progress. I suppose that adding electric power will take another 50 years. Anyway, I have a better solution: instead of 4 lanes on I-5 build a double-tracked railroad all the way along I-5 right in the middle of it, check out how BART is done. Add bus routes to carry people to/off the stations. This will allow to dismantle current coastline railroad and to recover wetlands and whatnot. Oh, and make sure that freight and passenger trains can coexist, this will allow to move freight at daytime and will take 18-wheelers off the road.

KB wrote on Sep 15, 2007 5:54 PM:To Gary’s “facts”. Where are you getting your facts to disprove Mr. Gallegos? When I get on the Coaster it is filled with people, Southern California needs more light rail systems to get as many cars off the street as possible, the San Francisco Bay Area is so far ahead of us in light rail we really should look at them as an example.

Response to KB wrote on Sep 15, 2007 6:23 PM:Gary's facts are published and public. If you make one round trip per day, he counts you as ten riders per week. That is how they do it. It is public record. Know that I support sensible transit solutions, but if we let them squander every last dollar on this non-solution, we will all be stuck in traffic for decades, because they will have spent all the money on the wrong technology in the wrong place. Let's use that money in a smarter way and solve some problems.

KB wrote on Sep 15, 2007 7:25 PM:To response to me. So 10 trips a week is 2 trips a day, which is a drive to work then a drive back home for both people driving to work and back and tourists, that makes perfect sense. You are keeping 3000 cars off the road in the morning and 3000 in the afternoon, so lets say someone commutes to work each day and it takes an hour each way to get to work, your argument is that instead of count that commuter using the freeway for 2 hours a day you should only count it as 1 hour a day.

Gary in Murrieta wrote on Sep 15, 2007 8:28 PM:I hate it when they say "Carpool Lanes". They just do not work, and tehy are a highly ineffective use of resources. I can say this and I have operated a vanpool for the last 6 years.

Oceanside Chris wrote on Sep 16, 2007 4:19 AM:another reason why I don't spend money for Del Martians in their community. Selfish, money gathering gang of thieves.

David wrote on Sep 16, 2007 7:03 AM:It's a train. It's for transportation. Like a car, or a Bekins truck. Put it next to the freeway, with the rest of the "transportation"...it's bad for the coastline and it's a hazard for the public and for our kids. It was a mistake 80 years ago to put the train adjacent to the sandy beach. Learn from our mistakes and move the train to the freeway corridor. Not easy, but it is the obvious and right thing to do.

Fred wrote on Sep 16, 2007 7:58 AM:Put the train on Highway 5 - now that is the stupidist suggestion I ever heard -- unless it will be underground. An elevated train on a freeway?? That is just disaster waiting to happen.

Neighbor wrote on Sep 16, 2007 8:06 AM:The timeline for the tunnel is based upon hope and prayer that the bluffs along the existing track hold up intil then. If the bluffs fail sooner, expect the State and Federal governments to step in and emergency fast-track an inland route for the train tracks.

Common Sense wrote on Sep 16, 2007 11:33 PM:Building the train on I-5 would be a bad idea beacuase it would take up space that could be used for more lanes. I agree with Gary in Murrieta that carpool lanes for the most part suck. Their in affective and dicriminate against solo drivers. People can car pool on their own accord, but not everyone has that option. So carpool lanes on the 78 and 5 are a bad idea. On the other hand the carpool lanes on the 15 are nice since they are reversible and solo drivers can pay a small toll to ride on them. I don't see what the problem of building the train underground is. They could probably replace the current track in Del Mar all together. Maybe the fuss the people in Del Mar are making is good because it will ensure that the track is built in the most environmentaly friendly way prossible.-

To Inland wrote on Sep 17, 2007 11:18 AM:There is a connection from the Coaster to UCSD. UCSD has a shuttle bus for every train which picks you up at Sorrento valley stop.

Alan Fishel wrote on Sep 17, 2007 2:26 PM:If the tunnel is so distasteful for the good people of Del Mar, could the line be double tracked at grade through Del Mar? Moving the line to be adjacent to the 5 would be a very big and expensive job and requiring a major rebuilding of the freeway. But you can’t be too upset with the people of Del Mar for wanting to keep their community from being over run with pavement and staying the way that it is that brought the residents to want to buy property there in the first place. I may be selfish but I sure enjoy the train ride along the cost and through the many smaller towns of Northern San Diego County. I would miss the wonderful view if the line was to be put underground or moved east. The line does need to be double tracked to handle the increased traffic and the double tracking of the line would cause far less environmental damage and incontinence than anything else such as adding lanes to the 5 etc. Alan Fishel

Scott Mercer wrote on Sep 17, 2007 7:10 PM:Building the train along the freeway is dumb because, while people use the freeway system to drive to and from work and home, very few people live within walking distance of freeways. And if you place the trains within, on, or under the freeways, you are limiting the number of people who use the trains, ergo, also limiting the number of cars getting off the freeways. Because people have to be able to walk to the trains. If they drive their cars to the Park and Ride Lot adjacent to the freeway, they might as well just continue driving on the freeway. You have to make it easy for people to DUMP THEIR CARS and live 100% on public transit. Remember, we should be moving people, not automobiles. This is why following historic railway corridors is the right way to go whenever possible. The old downtowns and town centers were built around these historic rail corridors, since settlement here (just barely) pre-dates the arrival of the automobile. I would agree though that if you are putting the Coaster in a tunnel (which could work) you would have to electrify the entire line. Regarding the people in Del Mar: these are typical NIMBY jerks would want to make life difficult for the 98% of other county residents. Sounds like they are organizing. Now is the time for some sensible people who live in DelMar or elsewhere to organize against these people. Looks like your in for a long, 20 year struggle.

George wrote on Sep 18, 2007 1:52 AM:Maybe you should take a trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, where the Bay Area Rapid Transit system operates in the center of the freeway. If you're handy with Google maps, look for 'Livermore, California' and zoom in on the intersection of I-580 and I-680. Move east about 4,000 feet, switch to satellite view, and you'll see the Dublin/Pleasanton BART station in the center median! Blending transit with cars is much more efficient than a 100% transit solution, something BART has been demonstrating for decades.

Polar Bear wrote on Sep 19, 2007 11:11 AM:*** "If you place the trains within, on, or under the freeways, you are limiting the number of people who use the trains, ergo, also limiting the number of cars getting off the freeways. Because people have to be able to walk to the trains. If they drive their cars to the Park and Ride Lot adjacent to the freeway, they might as well just continue driving on the freeway." -- They would use buses to get to stations, not their own cars. It was said before, I say it again: check out how BART works. I lived for a year in East Bay area, in Walnut Creek. There are convenient bus routes around town, and a transit station right adjacent to BART station. Get onto bus, ride 5 minutes, change to BART, sit down, pull out your laptop and prepare to a morning meeting. The train goes 60 mph, while others are stuck in a traffic in their personal cars. *** "Building the train on I-5 would be a bad idea because it would take up space that could be used for more lanes." -- Using train will mitigate the need for more lanes. We don't need more lanes.

Carlsbad resident wrote on Sep 21, 2007 6:40 PM:Del Mar residents have every right to fight for their beliefs. Maybe if you all paid $3 million plus for your homes you would want to preserve your town too. I would fight this if it were to happen in Carlsbad. Name calling and making absurd assumptions about people you don't know is a waste of time. Adding new tracks is a waste of money and time.