Freight trains to and from San Diego resumed traffic Thursday night below a slow-moving landslide in San Clemente that has periodically interrupted service since Jan. 24.
Workers removed enough soil and debris from the railroad right-of-way for BNSF Freight officials to conclude it would be safe for trains to pass at 10 mph between 9 p.m. Thursday and 4:30 a.m. Friday, Metrolink officials said. The tracks are evaluated daily and inspected before and after each freight train passes.
Passenger service remains suspended between San Diego and Orange counties. North County Transit District continues to run Coaster trains on their normal schedule between downtown San Diego and Oceanside. Metrolink trains run as far south as the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station on weekdays and San Juan Capistrano on weekends.
Amtrak has suspended some of its Pacific Surfliner runs on the route, but some continue serving San Diego with a bus connection between Oceanside and Irvine.
Project engineers said Thursday that soil continued to move slowly down the San Clemente slope. Digging was underway to determine the location of underground utilities in preparation for construction of a barrier wall to protect the tracks. Workers also were replacing plastic sheeting over the saturated hillside to protect it from more rain expected to begin Sunday.
The California Transportation Commission has awarded $2 million for the clean-up and pre-construction activities. Metrolink and the Orange County Transportation Authority are working to secure additional funding for the wall project.
“Once the contractor is finalized, details associated with the project to establish a timeline for safely resuming passenger rail service will be determined,” states an update posted to the Metrolink website.
Sometimes called the Mariposa Point slide, it is the third place in San Clemente where unstable slopes have periodically stopped trains in recent years.
San Clemente is not the only West Coast community with weather-related rail problems. Amtrak announced Friday morning it was suspending service between Portland and Seattle for the next 48 hours because of a storm-caused landslide at an unspecified location.
