Dan Britts gave his daughter a warm embrace and was off for a scenic trek from San Clemente to Oceanside, boarding a Metrolink train that ran the coastal route for the first time in two months.
“We leave the driving to someone else,” said Britts, who was using the train to bounce between his children’s homes for granddad duties. “It’s a great way to get around.”
The Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains on Monday, March 25, resumed full service through San Clemente for the first time since late January, when for the fifth time in recent years a landslide dumping onto the tracks halted passage.
The latest disruption was caused when parts of hillside above fell onto the Mariposa Bridge along the city’s popular beach path and then onto the tracks. The Orange County Transportation Authority is just completing a 200-foot-long, 15-foot-tall wall to hold back the slope so trains can pass once again.
“We are excited that both Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner resumed their full schedules today through San Clemente,” Metrolink spokesman Scott Johnson said in an email.
Metrolink anticipated about 500 customer boardings at stations in San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente and Oceanside throughout the day Monday, with even more of an increase in ridership expected during spring and summer months, he noted.
Last week, a more comprehensive drainage system was integrated with the catchment wall to complement completed grading to the hillside and trenching along the rail right-of-way, Johnson said.
On Monday, trains were able to operate through the area at the regular track speed of 40 mph. Amtrak had already resumed some limited service in morning and evening hours in early March, and freight service has been ongoing most nights, with a few disruptions due to rain and falling debris.
The tracks are part of the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, Rail Corridor.
Britts, a regular user of public transportation at his home near Sacramento, was looking forward to his commute, only $4 using his senior rate.
“You get to look at the ocean most of the way, you don’t have to worry about traffic,” he said. “It’s comfortable, relaxing. I get to read.”
His daughter, Becky Smart, got to save on gas money and spend the time going on a jog instead of sitting in traffic taking him to San Diego.
But her beachfront jog had a detour, with the north end of the beach path still closed by a chain-link fence.
There’s no word yet from the city on when the section between North Beach and the bridge will reopen. A section of the bridge, a critical link along the 2-mile trail, had to be demolished. The city will need to plan a replacement around the newly construction containment wall and also find funding for the millions it will cost to rebuild.
Phoenix residents William and Tammy Adamaitis were hoping to take their favorite beachfront stroll Monday morning from North Beach to south of the pier when they learned the path was still shut down.
William Adamaitis lived in San Clemente in the mid-1970s, and while much has changed in the past 50 or so years, one thing remains the same, he said: the threat of landslides.
“We lived in Shorecliffs; there was a ridiculously large rain one year,” he recalled. “The people who lived down the street, their home just cracked. They had to vacate. It’s not surprising. It’s just part of what’s going to happen. It’s just the nature of the coastline.”
OCTA is trying to figure out how to deal with the coastal threats to the rail line, which is at risk from landslides and also the ocean, with waves battering the tracks and rocks put in place as a barrier from the sea.
The price tag for emergency repairs following landslides and tracks movement the last few years is nearing $40 million, with a proposal by OCTA to spend another potential $200 million ahead of the next winter for the addition of another longer wall and more rock boulders to secure the tracks; plans that have come under fire from the community and city leaders who are pleading with the transportation authority to use the addition of sand as a buffer instead of hard armoring.
OCTA board members spoke briefly at their Monday meeting about the ongoing challenges along coastal San Clemente, following several public speakers who criticized the proposal for the addition of more boulders to the beach, a method of hard armoring experts say can exacerbate erosion.
Lisa Gant, a member of Save Our Beaches San Clemente, called OCTA’s proposal a “callous, environmentally irresponsible action that will destroy our beaches.”
“We cannot accept prioritizing the railroad at the cost of devastating San Clemente,” she said. “That is too high a cost.”
OCTA staff have said adding sand is not out of the question, but it is a harder process to get through permitting. Katrina Foley, an OCTA board member and also on the OC Board of Supervisors, said she met with Congressman Mike Levin last week to discuss ways to bypass permitting challenges.
Board member Jon Dumitru, who is also on the Orange City Council, said it would be worth staff doing an session dedicated to how armoring impacts erosion so the board could learn about how OCTA’s decisions may or may not be impacting San Clemente’s beaches “so when folks come forward, we can look at it more through their eyes.”
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“If it’s something we’re responsible for, let’s move forward with a plan and do something,” he said. “And if it’s not, let’s communicate it clearly.”
A meeting for the public to discuss OCTA concepts and short- to medium-term plans being studied will be held virtually on April 11 and in person on May 30 at the San Clemente City Hall.