SANDAG Plans For Rail Tunnel Under Del Mar Opposed by Residents

Del Mar Bluffs

File Photo

DEL MAR, Calif. – The saga of rail line troubles along the southern California coast continues, with opposition to a proposed remedy for the Del Mar area.

The Coast News Group reports that a Del Mar City Council meeting about relocating the rail corridor went “more or less of the rails” due to citizen opposition to a proposal to build a rail tunnel under Del Mar.

RT&S has extensively covered the challenges of railroading along the coast of southern California, including Del Mar, due to geological changes to areas near and supporting the line. Landslides, erosion, actual movement of right-of-way and other challenges have been plaguing the area for years. Lines have been closed at times due to construction of walls and other remedies to the problems.

The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has been working on a plan to relocate the line running by Del Mar by building a rail tunnel under the city and away from the coast. The line through Del Mar is part of a 351-mile stretch of the Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo-San Diego Rail Corridor (LOSSAN), along which the geological changes are occurring.

The plan, with a price tag of approximately $4 billion, calls for about 1.7 track miles to be moved from the bluff edge to tunnels beneath the city. Although no construction funding has been allocated, the state of California did allocate $300 million in 2022 for SANDAG to perform preliminary environmental and engineering studies for the plan. The plan also targets 2035 for completion of the work and available to passengers.

SANDAG Senior Planner Danny Veeh said, according to the Coastal News Group, that “2035 seems like a long time away, but for a project of this scale, it’s an aggressive but attainable schedule.

Those who attended the City Council meeting also heard from residents who are opposed to the plan. Del Mar is an affluent community, and residents are concerned about how the construction of a rail tunnel would impact their homes and quality of life.

One resident, Monica Meredith, according to Coastal News Group, said “she and other residents had worked hard to have homes in Del Mar and asked if SANDAG would use eminent domain – government acquisition of private property for public projects – to buy the homes above the new train route.”

Residents also questioned the SANDAG representatives about an earlier proposal to build a route near the Interstate 5 corridor, which seems to have been taken off the drawing board. SANDAG’s Veeh said the agency will only have answers to these questions when the environmental study is complete, but information about other relocation options will be available at a later public meeting.