Amtrak will resume limited passenger service Wednesday through the area below a San Clemente landslide that has stopped train traffic since Jan. 24.
Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains will be allowed to pass the area only between 7 and 8 a.m. and 6 and 7 p.m. daily, while work continues on a barrier wall being built to protect the tracks from the slow-moving landslide along the San Clemente Beach Trail near Mariposa Point.
Mid-day travel is not expected to resume until the wall is finished later this month. BNSF resumed running freight trains through the area late last week intermittently at low speeds during the night, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.
Also called a catchment wall, the barrier will be 160 feet long, standing between 10 feet to 15 feet above ground, and supported by steel beams sunk 30 feet deep. The steel beams will be encased in concrete and large wood planks will be installed between the beams.
All 33 steel beams for the foundation are in place, OCTA officials said in a news release Tuesday.
With all 33 steel beams for the foundation of the wall in place and Amtrak conducting its own risk analysis, the OCTA, Metrolink and LOSSAN team have agreed that limited Pacific Surfliner service can safely resume to and from San Diego through San Clemente, officials said.
“Even with additional rain expected later this week, the team plans to continue to work on drainage, excavation and installing the wooden panels between the steel beams that will create the catchment wall,” the release states.
Trains that will resume service without the need for a bus bridge are southbound Pacific Surfliner trains 562 (morning) and 784 (evening), and northbound Pacific Surfliner trains 765 (morning) and 587 (evening).
Bus connections between Irvine and Oceanside will continue to be available for trains 769, 770, 774, 777, 785 and 790, to take passengers around the closure.
Metrolink trains, which normally go as far south as Oceanside, will not resume service through the area yet. They will continue to operate only weekday service as far south as the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station and on weekends as far south as San Juan Capistrano until the wall is finished.
North County Transit District’s Coaster commuter trains between San Diego and Oceanside are not affected by the suspension.
