REGION: Summer brings lift for the Sprinter, officials say

By PAUL SISSON - Staff writer | Friday, July 18, 2008 5:01 PM PDT ∞

Kyle Caslava 14, left, Evan Spurgeon, 13, middle, and Eddie Dellamary, 13, head to the beach after riding the Sprinter from San Marcos to Oceanside on Friday morning. (Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle - staff photographer)
Christy Spurgeon, right, and her daughter Erika, 10, head to the beach after riding the Sprinter from San Marcos to Oceanside on Friday morning. (Photo by Jamie Scott Lytle - staff photographer)

NORTH COUNTY ---- With schools out and families on vacation, the Sprinter light-rail line saw a June jump in ridership, tallying an average of 7,659 riders per day and boosting business near Oceanside beaches where the train lets out, officials said this week.

"It's sort of a beach pattern right now," said Tom Lichterman, operations director for the North County Transit District, at a recent meeting.

Eying a graph of Sprinter ridership, Lichterman pointed to a spike in the total number of passengers at about 4 p.m. He said that the surge of traffic on the line is probably from beach travelers, who trickle out to the coast in the morning, then return to eastern cities in the late afternoon.

Regional planning officials have said they expect the Sprinter to carry nearly 12,000 riders daily by the end of its first year of operation.

The latest Sprinter counts are about 600 riders higher than the last count, taken in May, Lichterman said.

The news did not surprise Sharon Olloqui, owner of the Ensemble clothing store in the swank new Oceanside Terraces building on Cleveland Street in downtown Oceanside.

The building sits right next to the Oceanside Transit Center, and Olloqui said she has seen increasing numbers of tourists and day trippers walking down the sidewalk in front of her shop, headed to and from the waterfront.

The shopkeeper said that when she rings up sales she asks customers where their from so she can she track that information. She said she is seeing shoppers from inland cites, in addition to the usual vacationers visiting from other states.

"The trains ... really help, both the Sprinter and the Coaster," she said. "We're seeing them from Escondido, San Marcos ---- they're coming from inland and they just want to cool off."

The $480 million Sprinter light-rail line opened in March after years of controversy, cost increases and construction setbacks. The 22-mile route stretches from Escondido to Oceanside, with 15 stops along the way.

Critics alleged all along that the train would be a boondoggle and that North County residents would shun the rail service. But in its first few months of operation, transit officials have said they're pleased with number of folks who are giving the train a try.

On Friday morning, the Spurgeon family from San Marcos made its first outing on the Sprinter, heading for the beach in Oceanside, said mom Christy.

"In the summer, we go to the beach every Friday, and we thought we would come out on the Sprinter this time," she said, as the family headed away from the train's platform toward the shore.

Spurgeon said the family usually picks a beach in Carlsbad, or Encinitas for the Friday trip. She added that it was the simple fact that the Sprinter's westernmost terminus is on Cleveland Street in Oceanside that brought the family to town.

"We would come back again, but not every Friday," Spurgeon said.

There are signs that Oceanside's entire beachfront is getting a Sprinter bump this summer.

Kim Heim, director of Mainstreet Oceanside, said Friday that many business owners have reported increased Sprinter-related sales. He said concession vendors at Tyson Street and The Strand, the closest beach access to the Sprinter platform, are finding they can almost set their watches to Sprinter arrivals.

"They say over and over that they can tell exactly when each Sprinter arrives," Heim said.

Back over at Oceanside Terraces, Kirk Harrison, co-owner of the polished new Harney Sushi restaurant, said he agrees that foot traffic on the sidewalk that passes his front door is steady and increasing. But he said the restaurant has not yet seen an influx of new customers from nearby trains or buses.

"I don't survey our customers or anything, so it's hard to say, but I get the feeling that most of our customers drive," Harrison said.

Harrison himself, however, said he rides the rail almost daily, hopping on a Coaster train to reach Harney's sister restaurant in Old Town San Diego.

"It's definitely great being this close to the train," he said. "I haven't been in my car in a week."

The Sprinter does what it can to court beach-bound riders, allowing Boogie boards, beach chairs, small coolers and surfboards up to 6 feet long.

The train runs every half-hour from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays and every hour on weekends. Sprinter day passes are $4 per person.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.

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Pre-Registration Comments[-]Go to Top

Sprinter Fare correction wrote on Jul 18, 2008 9:33 PM:Day passes for the Sprinter are $4.50 instead of $4.00. This is also true for the Breeze buses.

Come January, the the buses and the Sprinter will cost $5.00 for a day pass.

How sad wrote on Jul 19, 2008 8:41 AM:I feel terrible for the sad aangry little man from San Marcos who insisted nobody would ride these cute little trains... I guess if we build it, they do indeed come!

I Wonder wrote on Jul 19, 2008 8:50 AM:if there are economies of scale available, or if the Splinter is like the store that loses a little on every sale but hopes to make it up in volume?

Right now, EVERY ticket is 70% subsidized by the taxpayer, and I suspect that is in operating costs alone and not counting the nearly half-billion dollars in taxpayer capital cost that can never be repaid!

"Another such 'victory' and we are undone" -- Pyrrhus, after the Battle of Asculum (279 B.C.)

I am not certain the taxpayers can afford another "good deal" like the Sprinter and the California Center for the Arts!

Do politicians get their training at the P.T. Barnum Institute?

Spike in ridership... wrote on Jul 19, 2008 9:15 AM:is probably due to spike in gas prices rather than summertime fun.

I've been riding every weekday for a month and I have to say that I like the sprinter.

They need to get that east-bound Escondido open soon.

How about some community relations training for the surly transit officers at Vista Transit Center? They are a real unfriendly bunch...I thought they worked for us?

Please be serious wrote on Jul 19, 2008 9:25 AM:Get real. The Sprinter isn't about making money any more than the Fire Dept. or Police Dept. or road repair are about :making money." How much money did our military make in winning WWII?

Given the ever-rising costs of energy, the state of the economy, threats to the environment and individual savings to riders who otherwise would be spending much more money driving their vehicles, the Sprinter is not only necessary, it is a tremendous bargain.

Get over it. Mass transit is the wave of the future.

Escondido Ave. questioner wrote on Jul 19, 2008 9:56 AM:And, yes, what is going on with the Escondido Ave. station in Vista?

One still can't use the station when traveling east, and no one says anything about us. The NCTD owes its customers regular explanations about the endless delays. The Escondido Ave. station looks like a ghost town.

Well Not Exactly wrote on Jul 19, 2008 10:17 AM:Mass transit is exactly what it says it is -- for the masses. It is collectivist transportation for collectivists, but individuals who can afford to will take indivvidual transportation where they can go where they want, when they want.

People in undeveloped countries yearn, absolutely CRAVE to own a car -- but the poor (countries and individuals) are locked into collectivist thinking, and collectivist transportation.

Given their CHOICE, and I favor CHOICE IN EVERYTHING, they will CHOOSE cars, but liberals hate the poor and want them locked in MASS transit.

I CHOOSE not to participate, and so would the poor if they could afford the gas at prices liberals have kept high by refusing to let us drill anywhere there is oil; build nuclear plants; conserve; solarize the desert and build power lines to bring us power, etc.

Just remember -- the Sprinter runs on Finite Filthy Fossil Fuel -- DIESEL!

Louis wrote on Jul 19, 2008 10:29 AM:I completely agree that public transportation isn't about making money? That is one of the ways government facilitate progress. If government (which is a representation of all of us) didn't spend our tax dollars in infrastructure that benefit the people (directly or indirectly) that would be wrong. I would rather see more subsidy on public transportation (build more light trains) than building wider roads.

Louis wrote on Jul 19, 2008 10:45 AM:Mass transportation is not about liberals or undeveloped countries. On the contrary, only highly developed civilizations have been able to develop mass transportation (which includes free roads and highways and subsidized light trains), examples like Germany, France, UK,which can't be classified as undeveloped countries.
I agree that the sprinter should be an electric train- but it is a start in the change in mentality of inefficient mass transportation like the car and buses.

Well Exactly wrote on Jul 19, 2008 11:37 AM:Thank you for Well Not Exactly for perpetutating the myth that drilling would lower gas prices. Full blown pumping of oil from ANWR would lower oil price by 50 cents a barrel. Get it? 50 CENTS A BARREL. Drilling offshore and ANWR would only make leaseholders richer and do nothing to lower oils price, remember, it is a world market, China will basically be using our oil. Lets save our oil for the "rainy day" when the Mideast quits selling to us.

An Appreciation of wrote on Jul 19, 2008 1:06 PM:scale is what is lacking in mass transit advocates. Counties in the West=States in the East=Countries in Europe. (San Diego County is larger than several Eastern States!)

More dense populations, also usually vertical populations, can use mass transit more efficiently than can horizontal populations. It is a question of scale.

Now, I understand that Collectivists want vertical populations (Mass Housing -- I saw it in the old Soviet Union), but again, GIVEN THEIR CHOICE. people elect to have individual homes and individual cars.

Look at any developing country, from Russia to China to Mexico and the FIRST thing a person wants is a automobile -- personal transportation, even though they may have access to excellent mass transit. The central planners in Moscow built a terrific and beautiful subway system, but given their choice and even after decades of collectivist mentality, the people crave private automobiles.

I prefer affluence – the means by which to exercise CHOICE.

Perzactly wrote on Jul 19, 2008 1:25 PM:"Drilling offshore and ANWR would only make leaseholders richer" -- and the Russins are about to drill at the North Pole and China off the Cuban Coast -- and both of those "BIG OIL" companies are much larger than our largest, Exxon! Talk about Big Oil!

So, who do you want to make "richer," China, Russia or the United States? (I almost hesitate to ask!)

An American oil company must pay the US and the State 20% royalty, PLUS taxes on the remainder -- while China and Russia will pay us squat!

O.k. the answer is not ANWAR -- it is ANWAE, nuclear, solar, geothermal. wind, oil, oil shale, coal...there is an endless list, but there are a very few left who would do none of the above" in order to have a "zero carbon footprint."

Al Gore certainly does not have a zero carbon footprint -- but the homeless do!

I just look at what happened to the well-head price of oil last week (dropped $20 a barrel) when the president just mentioned drilling! That mere mention will give us $0.50 a gallon less at the pump in three weeks, IF we do not cut his proposal off at the knees! (The Democrats are trying!)

Markets hate a glut, energy is partially fungible, and we need every erg of energy we can master!

Months and months and still counting wrote on Jul 19, 2008 4:26 PM:RE: Escondido Ave. Station in Vista

I think a lot of people are wondering what is going on. If the government agency that has to approve the renovations is dragging its feet, at least tell us that is the problem. As it is, the North County Transit District just leaves us in the dark.

This delay has gone on way too long. The way things stand, the Escondido Ave. Station (which wasn't constructed for free) sits almost idle, with an empty parking lot, month after month after month. Most people like to park their vehicles and board at a location they can access coming back the other way. This only makes sense!!!

It would be wonderful if the NC Times could put its editorial weight behind resolving this situation. Get on them and stay on them! A daily breakout listing the days since the Sprinter began running -- with no eastbound service avaiable at the Escondido Ave. Station -- wound be appropriate. Perhaps you could package this with your breakout listing how many days we're going without a state budget.

In the meantime, the Transit District should have the courtesy to regularly update its riders / customers just what is going on. This situation has become a very bad joke and, guess what, the joke's on us!

Karl wrote on Jul 19, 2008 4:43 PM:I wonder how anyone can predict the $ effect of drilling in anwar with any certainty at all.

Senior Rider wrote on Jul 19, 2008 6:59 PM:Singing praises about the Sprinter is a little much for the current bus riders who will lose a lot of freedom. Will the Marketing staff be out on the transfer points making sure we are identified. Every day a new twist to the Sprinter story...it is getting old.

Johnboy wrote on Jul 19, 2008 7:52 PM:The value of ANWR oil is predicable because there is a predicable flow of oil into a predicable market.

As for the mention of drilling causing a price drop, that notion is nonsense. If we started drilling tonite we would not see oil till 2012

Cocerned wrote on Jul 19, 2008 8:05 PM:I'd like to see a Sprinter from Temecula to Escondido.

Fact Checker wrote on Jul 19, 2008 9:44 PM:Markets are reactive to futures, and the president not only is pushing for ANWAR, but nuclear, and continental shelf. More non-Middle East oil is coming from Brazil, Russia, and China.

Most energy is fungible, particularly for the production of electricity.

A glut in energy production will drive down oil prices because the Middle East can't drink it. They would rather bring down the price to try to forestall our drilling, and if they can bring it down below our production cost they can continue to sell it.

So long as current use matches or exceeds supply this cannot happen – but even the threat of increased supply moves the market.

robert wrote on Jul 21, 2008 8:52 AM:I love all the talk about how people CHOOSE to live in suburbs and CHOOSE to drive cars when the government has spent billions if not trillions of dollars subsidizing the both of them, both directly through the Interstate Highway program, and through tax credits for buying a house and such, as well as zoning laws that make it impossible to choose to live in a dense and less car-filled neighborhood, because it's illegal to build that way.

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