(The following story by Adam Kaye appeared on the North County Times website on March 31. Mike Guyer is a member of BLET Division 20 in Los Angeles.)
ENCINITAS, Calif. — For some city officials, the Encinitas Passing Track Project has represented 1.7 miles of controversy.
As the first trains rolled over the new rails this week, however, Encinitas and railroad officials agreed that they have mended their ill feelings during the six months of construction.
“We’ve entered a new era of cooperation,” said Councilman Jerome Stocks, the city’s delegate to North County Transit District’s board of directors. “I’m very hopeful that spirit of cooperation can continue for the mutual benefit of both agencies.”
The passing track, where one train can idle as another passes on the main line, officially opened Wednesday, said Transit District spokesman Tom Kelleher.
“We’ve actually turned the track over to the dispatcher,” Kelleher said. “As of (Wednesday) morning, they were able to put any trains they want onto the passing track.”
Because a dispatch center in Pomona controls train traffic in San Diego County, Kelleher said, he did not know when or how many trains were directed onto the siding.
North County Transit District owns and operates the railway between San Onofre and Santa Fe Depot in San Diego. Officials from the regional agency say the passing track is necessary to improve the efficiency of up to 50 trains that share the tracks every day.
The passing track will see its heaviest use when southbound Amtrak trains run late from Los Angeles, or when freight trains that have no schedules need to pass, Kelleher said.
No ribbon-cutting or other fanfare marked the track’s opening, which came after days of testing.
Overseeing much of the testing was John Eschenbach, an Amtrak West project manager hired by the North County Transit District.
Before the new railroad could begin service as a passing track, federal guidelines required Eschenbach to direct 12 trains traveling at 30 mph onto the siding. He then waited 24 hours before testing the tracks with measuring instruments to ensure the rails had settled evenly. Apparently they had.
“Just like silk,” locomotive engineer Mike Guyer told Eschenbach over a two-way radio Tuesday, as he drove his northbound Coaster train over the passing track through Cardiff.
Trains can turn onto the passing track at 60 mph, Eschenbach explained. Between Chesterfield Drive and E Street —- the span of the passing track —- the speed limit for trains is 70 mph.
In the course of 210 days, crews set 4,300 ties weighing 2.1 million pounds, he said. On top of those ties are 17,200 feet of rails.
An added benefit of the project has been some 4,000 cubic yards of dirt, which crews placed and compacted east of the railway just south of E Street, where a city parking lot is planned.
That’s just one example of cooperation, said Stocks, the councilman.
“That dirt was slated to be hauled away,” Stocks said. “We need the parking, and it’s on (the Transit District’s) property. We were going to have to pay to import dirt, and in meetings between engineers, we figured out a way their project could save money and our city could save money. It’s a huge win-win.”
The tone from city officials has not always been so upbeat.
In 2000, a city determined to fight the project paid $315,000 for a report to outline options for twin tracks through Encinitas. The report concluded that a covered trench, at an estimated $237 million, was the best choice.
In 2001, an Encinitas lawsuit claimed that the Transit District’s ground-level project lacked adequate environmental study. The city later dropped the suit because both sides agreed to jointly plan pedestrian crossings and a reconfigured Leucadia Boulevard vehicle crossing.
“Let’s face it,” Stocks said, “even though it was a contentious project and our city opposed it, it’s here. If it improves commuter rail service in any way, that’s a win, and if it reduces traffic on freeways and cut-through traffic in our neighborhoods, that’s something we shouldn’t lose sight of.”