The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) narrowed down its options for the long-proposed airport transit connection at the agency’s Active Transportation Committee meeting Friday.
Five of the 17 different concepts studied in the second round of the agency’s Airport Transit Connection (ATC) concept evaluation study were selected to move forward to the next round.
Three Automated People Mover (APM) concepts and two trolley extension options were selected as the most viable and useful alternatives for the eventual rail connection to the airport.
All of the concepts moving forward would connect to locations downtown, terminating at either Santa Fe Depot, the Convention Center, or 12th Avenue and Imperial Transit Center. Previous options that were considered would have served either Old Town Station or the rental car center just north of the airport, but these options were not selected to move forward.
Of the options selected to move forward, the trolley connections are projected to have the highest ridership and the lowest cost, estimated between $ 1.2 and $ 1.9 billion.
The people mover options, however, would be able to run more frequent service and wouldn’t slow down other trolley routes. SANDAG estimates the cheapest elevated people mover option would cost $1.8 to $2.8 billion.
The Agency is also moving forward with planning and design for three rapid bus routes that will serve as precursors to the eventual rail connection.
But County Supervisor Joel Anderson and San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera want the agency to move faster. If the agency can’t begin construction by 2029, they risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the airport earmarked for transit improvements.
“I think we've reached a point where continued evaluation alone risks delaying a project that has been long identified as essential to the airport and the region's future mobility,” Elo-Rivera said at Friday’s meeting.
Anderson, a SANDAG board member, and Elo-Rivera, alternate for first vice chair Joe LaCava, asked the agency to approve a Request for Proposals (RFP) in addition to the Request for Information (RFI) that was suggested by SANDAG staff. This motion was approved by the transportation committee, and SANDAG will be moving forward with both requests.
The RFI will ask for firms to assess SANDAG’s preferred concepts and provide information on the feasibility of different options. The RFP will ask those firms to submit actual proposals for building any of those options as well.
Elo-Rivera, a Democrat, pointed out that he and Anderson, a Republican, are both pushing the agency to move faster. “I think what it shows is that there are still elected leadership from across the political spectrum in San Diego that's committed to this,” Elo-Rivera said in an interview with KPBS. “But what we need to show is that we can actually do it.”
Anderson and Elo-Rivera hope that the RFP will be met with a proposal that could be shovel-ready by 2029, when the Airport Authority’s 10-year agreement with its airline partners expires.
That 10-year agreement included $350 million for transit projects to the airport that is only used for construction. If SANDAG can’t get a project approved and ready to break ground by then, it could lose that money.
But SANDAG CEO Mario Orso cautioned that the 2029 deadline will be difficult to meet.
“It is highly unlikely that you would get an environmental document of this magnitude done, signed, sealed and delivered, record of decision, with no court–clear and free from court questionings, you know, lawsuits, by that date,” Orso said at Friday’s meeting. “That is a reality that I think anybody who's involved in delivery will let you know.”
Anderson, however, was optimistic that the RFP could lead to a serious proposal that fits their expectations and could be shovel-ready by 2029.
“We're probably going to get sued,” Anderson said at Friday’s meeting. “Everything you said is probably going to be true. But what if this is our lucky day and we get to spend that $350 million and save 18% of the total cost of the projected $2 billion?”
Anderson said he wanted to “roll the dice” and see if a proposal submitted for the RFP would work, and that, if not, there’s no obligation to select any proposal at that time. The committee ultimately voted 6-2 in favor of Anderson’s motion.
Before the vote, SANDAG staff told Anderson that the request for information could be done in four months, but the request for proposals would take more than nine; meaning the agency would likely get answers from the first request before proposals are submitted for the second.
That timeline eased some concerns from other board members about leapfrogging the RFI but also made Anderson question if there’s really any chance to still receive the $350 million from the airport.
“We are actively talking with the management of the airport that had assured us that they are pursuing an extension to that date,” Orso said.
A transit connection to the airport has been under consideration since 2007, when a state bill created the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority and directed SANDAG to study and plan for future demand, ground access, and transportation options.
