An Amtrak Surfliner made the inaugural run across the new Batiquitos Lagoon rail bridge Monday morning.
It’s a milestone for the $166 million Batiquitos Lagoon Double Tracking project.
“We’ve shifted the train over from the old bridge,” said Omar Ataye, a principal engineer at the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).
He said double tracking will increase service throughout the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) corridor.
“You can get more frequency on your trains,” Otaye said. “It also helps with maintenance, where if you need to take a track out of service for a period of time, you can do that. And you can have trains shift over. So it adds capacity and it adds real benefits for service as well.”
The project is only 75% complete. The new concrete bridge allows crews to start dismantling the old wooden trestle bridge built in the 1940s. Crews will also work on a parallel bridge that will hold the second set of tracks.
The new bridge “is much more sustainable and safer material,” said Tracey D'Aoust Roberts, Caltrans’ deputy director of environmental analysis for the San Diego region.
She said the new bridge is more environmentally friendly, with wider spans — or sections of the bridge — that allow more water to flow through.
“It's also going to encourage better eelgrass development, which encourages fish and then brings in suitable habitat for the California least tern,” D'Aoust Roberts said.
California least terns were listed as endangered in 1970, and by 1974, only an estimated 582 nesting pairs remained in the state. The Batiquitos Lagoon nesting site was first established in the 1990s.
SANDAG conducted an environmental analysis in 2024, ahead of construction, which was paused during the migratory birds' breeding season.
An abandoned nest with eggs shows that the endangered least terns used the area this past breeding season.
The project is expected to be complete by spring 2026, adding 0.6 miles of double track for a continuous 5.7-mile run in the LOSSAN corridor. It’s the second-busiest passenger rail network and San Diego’s only rail connection to the rest of the nation.
Approximately $1 billion in goods flow through the corridor each year. Eventually, the entire corridor will be double-tracked.
