NORTH COUNTY - When Sprinter trains carry their first paying passengers as early as this morning, the trip will represent the culmination of a long and often divisive quest to reinvent public transportation in North County.

It took three decades of planning, design, engineering and politics to bring the Sprinter to its opening day. Though many have questioned the wisdom of the new $480 million rail link between Escondido and Oceanside, few would deny the tenacity it took to bring the project to fruition.

The Sprinter has overcome lawsuits, sharp price increases, design flaws and even a damaging derailment to get to today, when it is set to start ferrying customers.

Now, the line must begin earning its keep, building toward the estimated 11,600 boardings per day needed to help cover its $11 million annual operating cost.

Peter Aadland, the North County Transit District's marketing director, said no one knows just how quickly the Sprinter will reach its rider targets, but he said the true measure of the rail line's success will not come overnight.

"The real proof won't be how many people are riding it on March 9, 2008, or 2009 or 2010," Aadland said. "In 10 years I think the ultimate goal would be for people to say, 'Wow, we're so glad somebody persevered with that train, because we can't imagine our world without it."

The beginning

If there is one person in the Sprinter's history most responsible for making the Sprinter happen, it is retired Congressman Ron Packard.

At a VIP event in December, where the new train was previewed for local leaders, transit employees and other dignitaries, Packard was heralded as the "father of the Sprinter" for his dual roles in helping the North County Transit District secure both the operating right of way and a $152 million federal grant that allowed the line to go from paper plans to concrete and steel.

Speaking from his Carlsbad home, Packard said last week that he was convinced from the beginning that North County needed more than just wider freeways to solve its traffic congestion problems.

"It's not that I have any great affinity for trains," Packard said. "I just have a great affinity for a balanced transportation system. Trains have their place, as do buses and cars. You can't put all of your eggs in one basket, that's very short-sighted."

Transit district records show that North County transit planners had been eyeing the 100-year-old rail line between Oceanside and Escondido since the late 1970s.

By 1981, a formal study of the rail line focused on using a diesel-powered light-rail passenger train similar to those in use at the time in Europe.

There was just one problem. The Santa Fe Railway Co., which owned the 22-mile spur line, wasn't willing to sell.

Packard said he went to Santa Fe bosses, hat in hand, in the early 1980s as a member of the transit board and a city councilman representing Carlsbad.

"They said, 'no way,' (that) they weren't going to sell it," Packard said.

In 1982, voters elected Packard to the 43rd Congressional District seat and he remained in Congress until 2001. He eventually found himself appointed to the House Transportation Committee.

When Santa Fe Railroad officials came before the committee in the early 1990s, Packard said he took the opportunity to request that they sell the Sprinter spur to the North County Transit District.

"They were coming before us because they were having financial problems, and I asked them 'Now are you willing to sell?' and they said 'Yes, we might be able to work something out,' " Packard said.

In 1992, the transit district purchased a total of 84 miles of track from Santa Fe for $90 million. The purchase included both the 22 miles of track for the Sprinter and 62 miles of coastal track from the Orange County border to San Diego. That track now carries the Coaster commuter line.

During his time on the Transportation Committee, Packard met Norman Mineta, who would later serve as secretary of transportation under President Bush from 2001 to 2006.

Packard said that after a lobbying effort from North County leaders, Mineta agreed to approve the full-funding grant agreement from the Federal Transit Administration, giving the Sprinter the cash it needed to proceed.

Ever more expensive

When the grant agreement was approved in 2003, the project's cost was estimated at $333 million. The price tag grew considerably as the project was built.

In 2003, when the Sprinter project was put out for bid, it was estimated to cost $351 million. Today, with all heavy construction work complete, the price tag has reached $478 million, a 36 percentage point increase over the estimate made four years ago.

Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said he was not surprised by the increase.

"I would say 36 percent would be very consistent with what we've seen in increases in materials costs," Simonson said. "Their timing couldn't have been worse."

Driven by massive construction costs in the east and Middle East, the cost of raw materials spiked just as Sprinter construction began. Simonson noted that between 2003 and 2008 the cost of steel mill products increased 63 percent, copper prices early doubled, and diesel fuel rose 180 percent.

The economist said he preferred to use the "other heavy construction" portion of the producer price index to judge whether a large government project is in line with inflation. Compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the index tracks the selling prices received by domestic companies for their products.

"For that section of heavy construction, which would include things like rail projects and ports, we've seen a 40 percent increase from 2003 to 2008," Simonson said.

But the Sprinter has seen more than just runaway inflation since construction started. Builders have discovered a litany of problems with the Sprinter's design that have caused many parts of the project, especially the line's Escondido Avenue rail crossing, to be redesigned, costing the project millions.

A former project engineer for the Sprinter told the North County Times in 2006 that the original survey of the rail right of way, performed in 2005, was inaccurate and responsible for many of the problems that have caused cost overruns today.

The transit district brokered a "tolling agreement" with the project's designer in 2007, agreeing to set aside the issue of who is financially responsible for the design flaws until after the project was completed.

Fans and foes

Since the Sprinter's early planning studies were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s, a steady drum beat of opposition has dogged the project.

The transit district faced several lawsuits from individual property owners and two local cities - Vista and San Marcos - that alleged the new train would be too noisy and dangerous to pedestrians and would unfairly gobble up private property. Those suits have been settled or otherwise resolved.

Tax-averse voters have also derided the project, pointing out there are relatively few large business parks along its length. By comparison, the Coaster links housing-heavy North County with the region's largest job centers in Sorrento Valley and downtown San Diego.

In 2005 the San Diego County Taxpayers Association awarded the Sprinter its "Golden Fleece" award, an annual dishonor the organization often bestows on transit projects of which it disapproves.

Lani Lutar, the association's executive director, said the organization maintains its disdain for the Sprinter for its cost overruns and for ridership estimates that she said the association deemed "overly optimistic."

"It's a perfect example of transit planners inaccurately estimating the costs for a project," Lutar said. "They continue to move forward with this belief that if you built it, the customers will come."

Richard Rider, a San Diego businessman and occasional columnist for the North County Times, said he objects to the very notion of light rail, which he said never comes close to covering its operating or construction costs.

"The Sprinter is nothing more than a big expensive bus on rails," Rider said. "The half-billion dollars that went into building this pretty rail system could have been used to widen Highway 78, and then everyone would have been able to use it."

Packard said that he sees the Sprinter not as a revenue-producing service, but as an alternative to crowded freeways.

"There are few train projects around the country that are not subsidized heavily," Packard said. He said the projects are important and valuable because they give commuters an option other than driving.

David Druker, a long-serving transit district board member, is also in the true-believer camp. Since he started serving on the board in 1996, he has consistently voted for the passenger rail line even when it looked as if the state might not provide $80 million in promised construction funds, forcing the district to borrow for the first time in its history.

Druker said he believes the Sprinter will do more than carry people who can not afford to drive.

"It's going to transform the communities that it goes through," Druker said. "We'll look back 20 years from now and say 'isn't this wonderful?' "

Like Packard, Druker said he sees all public transit, and the rail line in particular, as an alternative to driving that is worthy of the subsidy it receives from public tax dollars.

"I can't force people to get out of their cars, but I can provide an alternative that's safe and reliable," Druker said. "You've got to balance between building more roads and providing mass transit."

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

Sprinter/Breeze fares

Starting today, the following fares apply for all Sprinter trains and Breeze buses. Transfers between the Sprinter and local buses are included in ticket prices.

ADULT FARES *

- All-day pass: $4

- One-way ticket: $2

- Monthly pass: $54

SENIOR/DISABLED FARES

- Day pass: $2

- One-way ticket: $1

- Monthly pass: $16

STUDENT MONTHLY PASSES

- Palomar College: $42

- MiraCosta College: $39

- Youth regional pass (ages 6 to 18) $32

* Children age 5 and younger ride free.

Source: North County Transit District.