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Economy

SANDAG Endorses Trolley Extension From Old Town To UTC

By Alison St John / Reporter,  city news service
Published July 23, 2010 at 9:23 AM PDT
This story was published more than 13 years ago.

San Diego is one step closer to having a trolley line from downtown to UCSD and University Town Centre.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), the region's planning authority, today chose a preferred route for the proposed $1.2 billion Mid-Coast extension of the San Diego Trolley from Old Town to University City.

SANDAG Mid-Coast Corridor Transit Project
SANDAG has approved a route for a trolley extension from Old Town to UTC and UCSD.
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SANDAG's board voted unanimously to back the so-called "Light Rail Transit Alternative 1" as the preferred route, according to David Hicks, a spokesman for the agency.

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The plan is to take thousands of cars off Interstate 5 and give people another way to get to UCSD and the Golden Triangle.

The 11-mile-long path would take the trolley north from the Old Town Transit Center along the east side of I-5, cross over to UC San Diego, then cross the freeway again at Voight Drive before heading south on Genesee Avenue to University Town Centre.

Eight new stations would be created along the route.

The Metropolitan Transit System, which operates the San Diego Trolley, anticipates the route will generate 20,000 daily riders.

According to Anne Steinberger, a project manager for the Mid-Coast project, officials will now begin work on a supplemental environmental review and design/build plans for the extension.

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"With the vote today, we’ll be able to move forward with our application," she said. "We have been successful getting full funding grant agreements. We got one for the SDSU trolley extension. All indications are that this route will perform extremely well.”

The vote clears the way for SANDAG to seek federal funding for the project.

Of the $1.2 billion cost, half would come from TransNet, a local half-cent sales tax for transportation projects, and the remaining $600 million from federal grants, Steinberger said.

Funds for bus routes have suffered from serious budget cuts, but SANDAG hopes federal money will be forthcoming to add the 11 miles to the trolley’s Blue line from Old Town.

If work begins on the Mid-Coast Trolley extension in 2013, as hoped, the project would be completed sometime in 2015, according to Steinberger.

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Economy San Diego
Alison St John
Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.
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