The South Bay-to-Sorrento Valley corridor accounts for 30% of the region’s weekday peak period travel, but a proposed trolley line will cost much more than expected.
The San Diego Association of Governments will now study other potential designs for its proposed Purple Line, which plans to connect commuters between San Ysidro and Sorrento Valley.
SANDAG has discussed the project for years, pointing to growing congestion on interstates 5 and 805. Commuters traveling between the South Bay and Sorrento Valley account for 30% of the region’s weekday peak period travel, due in part to Sorrento Valley’s status as a biotech hub and San Diego’s largest employment center. Almost 170,000 people work there.
But the latest findings of a study, presented to the regional planning agency’s Transportation Committee last week, found that it would cost as much as $24 billion to build just a 22-mile portion of the rail line and would see lower ridership than expected.
SANDAG’s latest study envisions the Purple Line as part of a subway system meant to bring commuters to the area faster than San Diego’s existing public transit routes. It focused on building a segment that would reach as south as National City, arriving in 10-minute intervals at additional stops in City Heights, Mission Valley, Kearny Mesa and University City.
SANDAG project manager Cecily Taylor said the study projected ridership of the section to be lower than that of the Blue Line, San Diego’s most-used trolley route that can take users from the U.S.-Mexico border to the UC San Diego area.
About 30,000 daily riders, one-third of them new users, would take the Purple Line segment. That’s compared to the Blue Line’s 70,000 daily riders.
“So that’s definitely meaningful demand, but we were expecting to see a higher ridership for this kind of faster, metro-type of transit mode,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the Purple Line projections are likely affected by the lack of a connection to the rest of South County and the border.
SANDAG will start later this year the next stage of planning: studying alternatives. A 30-month study would evaluate all options for the line, from light rail to bus services and even a driverless system.
The new design will also have to consider the state’s interest in potentially extending Amtrak service to San Ysidro, Taylor said.
Read the rest of the story at inewsource.org.
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