Train service on the east-west Sprinter route between Oceanside and Escondido could be threatened by federal budget cuts.
Maintenance issues are forcing the replacement of the entire Sprinter fleet, an expense estimated at $351 million, long before its expected 30-year lifespan, according to North County Transit District officials. Also the district wants an additional $542 million to adapt its passenger stations to the new trains, add more sections of double-track and replace the signals at street crossings, bringing the funding need close to $1 billion.
Money for the district’s capital investments, such as trains and railroad improvements, comes in hefty grants from agencies such as the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration.
“NCTD is exploring all funding options at the federal and state level for the Sprinter fleet replacement,” said Mary Dover, the district’s chief of staff, in an email Friday.
“Should NCTD be unsuccessful in securing funding in the coming years to replace the vehicles, Sprinter service could be in jeopardy,” she said. “NCTD is planning well in advance to mitigate the chances of service reductions.”
NCTD purchased its 12 Sprinter cars in the early 2000s to carry passengers on the then-newly completed 22-mile, 15-station route through Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido. The self-contained, one-of-a-kind nature of the vehicles makes it difficult to find parts for them.
Only five of the vehicles remain in service, and the others are being used for parts, district officials said. The vehicles’ problems turned up early, and in 2016, passenger service was suspended for weeks to repair accelerated wear on the vehicles’ brake rotors.
Maintenance issues have continued since then. Replacement parts are costly and difficult to get because virtually no other transit agencies in the United States use the Sprinter rail system.
“There is a grave need for us to replace that fleet as soon as possible,” Dover told the board of directors at its February meeting. “We’ve put that at the top of our priority list.”
Sprinter service began in 2008 and over time has brought many new passengers to the district. The line had more than 1.8 million boardings in fiscal 2024, an 8.2% increase over the previous year, according to district officials.
Students at Palomar College and Cal State San Marcos make up the largest percentage of riders on the corridor.
“Last academic year in 2023-24 we issued 508 passes to students,” said Julie Lanthier Bandy, Palomar’s director of marketing, communications and public affairs. “We are seeing a slight increase in the distribution of passes so far this academic year.”
Regional planners, city officials and private developers all expect ridership to continue to increase along the east-west train route.
Hundreds of new apartments in multiple developments are planned or approved for construction at or near train stations in the four cities along the Sprinter route..
Transit-oriented development also is underway along the Coaster corridor. NCTD’s only other rail line, it carries commuters and weekend travelers along the coast with eight stations between Oceanside and San Diego.
The Coaster began service in 1995, more than 10 years earlier than the Sprinter, and is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Yet the Coaster today has less than half as many riders as the Sprinter, with just under 853,000 boardings in fiscal 2024.
The Coaster and Sprinter train systems are entirely different. The Coaster is a more commonly used type of train that uses a separate locomotive engine to push or pull multiple passenger cars. Sprinter cars each have their own on-board engine and can travel independently.
“We’ve got a very one-off, boutique system that in the 1990s was widely used in Europe,” NCTD Executive Director Shawn Donaghy said of the Sprinter. “Now it’s widely used nowhere.
“The vehicles themselves are actually very nice on the inside,” Donaghy said. “They run very well. We have some specific issues with the traction motors, and just the way the infrastructure underneath the car was designed … the rail trucks themselves and how the electronic components fit into that.”
Despite the mechanical problems, Donaghy sees a bright future for the Sprinter line.
Double-tracking the remainder of the route would eliminate bottlenecks and allow the district to run the trains twice as often during peak hours — every 15 minutes instead of every half hour — making it more convenient and attracting more riders.
Boosting ridership would remove more cars from the freeways, reduce pollution and help meet the region’s climate goals.
“It could be one of the single most successful rail lines in the state of California,” Donaghy said.
Transit officials hope to have the new Sprinter trains on the tracks as soon as 2028, he said.
While replacing the entire fleet has been estimated at $351 million, the final cost could be significantly more or less depending on the type of vehicle chosen and other factors, Donaghy said.
Money to replace the trains would come from a combination of federal, state and regional grants, as for most of the district’s capital improvements. So far there’s little funding available for new trains or the many other costs that will come with switching trains.
A different type of cars will require modifications to the passenger platforms at the stations where the trains stop, Donaghy said. Those improvements, along with additional sections of double-track to improve service and new signals at railroad crossings along the corridor, are estimated to cost roughly $542 million in addition to the cost of the trains.
The Sprinter’s present crossing signals are outdated and virtually obsolete, he said. Newer, more sophisticated signals would increase safety and improve traffic on the streets near railroad crossings.
In all, the district has more than $1.5 billion in unfunded or partially funded capital needs including two shovel-ready, double-tracking projects planned for the Coaster corridor.
Some of the money needed to begin planning those projects already has been allocated.
“In calendar year 2024, NCTD and its project partners (such as the San Diego Association of Governments) secured $103.8 million in competitive grant funding,” according to a report presented to the district board.
“This funding, combined with $259 million in leveraged local funding, represents over $360 million in capital investment over the next three to five years,” it states.
It’s unclear exactly how future funding might be affected.
President Donald Trump cancelled $1 billion in federal funding for California’s high-speed rail project in 2019. President Joe Biden later restored the funding and increased it.
In Trump’s second administration he could again revoke funding for high-speed rail, although so far there’s been no word on how other rail projects might be affected.
