Opening Ceremony Thursday for Sprinter Commuter Train

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 27, 2007 at 1:12 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Opening ceremonies are planned for tomorrow on the Sprinter light rail line from Oceanside to Escondido. The commuter train has been on the drawing board for 20 years KPBS reporter Alison St John has

Opening ceremonies are planned for tomorrow on the Sprinter light rail line from Oceanside to Escondido. The commuter train has been on the drawing board for 20 years KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The distinctive blue and turquoise carriages of the Sprinter will carry the first load of dignitaries on an inaugural run, though the line doesn't officially open to the general public until Sunday January 13th.

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Tom Kelleher of the North County Transit District says the project cost $470 million. He says the train is a hybrid between the heavy Coaster train and the red Metrolink trolleys that run through downtown San Diego

Kelleher: The Sprinter is actually light rail, although the Sprinter is going to be self propelled with diesel truck engines, so we didn't need to build that overhead support system, which is probably going to save the project about a hundred million dollars in construction costs. 1

Kelleher says the Sprinter was proposed in 1987 when the first half cent Transnet sales tax was approved.

Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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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.