Hello everyone and welcome to Train Talk!
This month is the 10 year anniversary of the CoasterFan2105 YouTube channel and to celebrate,
we are going to be talking a look at the Coaster commuter train service that runs in San Diego
County.
We will be talking all about the Coaster, its history, and what the future will bring
for the service.
Let’s get started!
The Coaster is a commuter train that runs along a 41 mile stretch of track between San
Diego, California and Oceanside, California.
It is one of several transportation services in San Diego County that is provided by the
North County Transit District, or NCTD for short, and trains are operated by Bombardier
Transportation.
The name Coaster is a shortened version of the service’s original official name: the
Coast Express Rail.
Between San Diego and Oceanside, trains make stops at the Old Town Transit Center, Sorrento
Valley, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad Poinsettia, and Carlsbad Village.
Currently, the railroad owns 7 locomotives and 28 passenger cars.
5 of the locomotives are type F40PHM-2C units built by Morrison Knudeson while the other
two are F59PHI locomotives built by Electromotive Division.
The 28 passenger cars are all Bombardier BiLevel cars, 10 of which are cab cars.
This allows trains to reverse direction in short order after arriving at the final stop,
a necessity for commuter train service.
Equipment is stored overnight and maintained at the Stuart Mesa commuter facility, located
just a few miles north of Oceanside.
On weekdays between runs, three train sets are stored south of the Downtown San Diego
depot at the San Diego Trolley yards.
North County Transit District owns the entire right of way over which Coaster trains operate
between San Diego and Oceanside.
They also own the portion of the railroad between Oceanside and the San Diego County
- Orange County Line, although no in service Coaster trains currently operate over this
stretch of track.
About two thirds of the rail line from downtown San Diego to the county line are double tracked,
with the majority of the line scheduled to have an additional track by 2050.
For more on current track work projects being performed in San Diego County, check out my
previous episode of Train Talk.
In addition to the Coaster trains, NCTD also operates the Sprinter rail service between
Oceanside and Escondido.
On weekdays, 11 trains run in each direction with 2 additional round trips on Friday evenings
during the summer.
Saturday, Sunday, and Holiday service consists of 4 round trips made throughout the day.
From April to October, a total of 6 round trips are made on Saturdays.
The trip from San Diego to Oceanside takes just about one hour.
In addition to Coaster trains, 3 Amtrak trains in each direction make additional stops at
the Sorrento Valley and Carlsbad Village Coaster stations.
On weekdays, 4 Coaster train sets are used, typically consisting of one locomotive and
5 cars.
In more recent years, one of the 4 sets runs with an additional locomotive in case there
is a breakdown.
On Saturdays in the summer, 2 sets are used and one set is used on Sundays as well as
Saturdays during the winter.
Fares are broken down into 3 zones.
Zone 1 runs from Oceanside to Solana Beach, Zone 2 includes just Sorrento Valley, and
Zone 3 runs between Old Town and downtown San Diego.
Travel within one zone costs $4.00 while travel through 2 zones is $5.00 and travel through
3 zones is $5.50 as of 2018.
Monthly passes are also available for frequent riders.
As of 2017, the average yearly ridership is around 1.5 million.
The weekday ridership is just shy of 5,000 per day.
Now let’s talk briefly about the history of the Coaster.
Regular service on the Coaster started February 27th, 1995.
During the previous year, the rail line was purchased from the Santa Fe Railroad and brand
new stations were constructed at Old Town, Sorrento Valley, Solana Beach, Encinitas,
Carlsbad Poinsettia, and Carlsbad Village.
The original train equipment was also built that year.
This included the 5 F40s and 16 passenger cars.
6 additional passenger cars were purchased a short time later in 1997.
At first, service was fairly limited, running just a few round trips on weekdays as a demonstration
commuter only service.
Shortly thereafter, the schedule was expanded and Saturday service was added to help off
peak travelers.
Mid day service and late Friday evening service was also added in the late 1990s.
Trains originally ran as 3 car sets, but some of these were soon expanded to 4 and eventually
5 cars.
In the mid 2000s, special event service was expanded with special trains for padre’s
baseball games in downtown.
To accommodate increasing demand, two F59PHIs were purchased in 2001.
An additional 6 passenger cars were purchased in 2003, 2 of which were cab cars.
Starting in the mid 2000’s, the F40s began going through a rebuild program at Norfolk
Southern’s Altoona Works in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Following the Great Recession of 2008, trains were temporarily cut back to 4 cars and the
fares and fare zones were restructured from the original 4 zones to the current 3.
So, what lies ahead for the Coaster?
More track work will continue to improve travel times in the future and will also eventually
lead to additional trips added to the schedule.
New stations are planned for the Del Mar Fairgrounds, downtown next to Petco Park, and Camp Pendleton.
NCTD has also looked at the possibilities of running express service, using Sprinter
vehicles on the Coaster route, and extending Coaster service into Orange County.
The biggest change that will be happening to Coaster over the next few years is the
replacement of most of the current fleet.
NCTD recently announced that it will be purchasing 5 new Siemens SC-44 Charger locomotives to
replace the old F40PHM-2C models.
These locomotives will be arriving starting in the spring of 2021 and will most likely
replace all the F40s by the end of that year.
In addition to new locomotives, NCTD is also looking into replacing their original 22 car
fleet, as these cars are nearing the end of their useful service life.
The Coaster has served San Diego County’s commuters well over the last two decades.
With many service improvements on the horizon, it looks like Coaster will continue to provide
reliable rail transportation through the region for many years to come.
Thank you for watching this episode of Train Talk.
To find out more about the Coaster and other NCTD services, please visit gonctd.com.
For a more in depth look at the Coaster service, I recommend checking out the video Coaster:
San Diego to Oceanside, from tsgmultimedia.com.
If you have any comments to share with me, please leave those below.
And finally, make sure you’re up to date with my latest videos by subscribing to the
channel and clicking the bell icon next to the channel name to receive notifications
every time I post a new video.
That’s it for now.
Until next time, I’m Mike Armstrong.
I’ll see you down the line!
Thanks for watching.