That is an interesting idea. Looking at Google Earth, the terrain looks less than conducive, although DMUs like the Sprinter uses could work. Probably better would be a SD Trolley line.
I took him to the Model Railroad Museum a few years before. My first visit to the old location was in spring 1968.
I would be nice if there was an equivalent to the Coaster along the I-15 corridor, but building a rail line along there would be much more expensive than what it cost to upgrade the Surf Line.
- Erik
Erik, you didn't go to the Balboa Park Model Train Museum???
Both Coaster and Metrolink provide an excellent service. But those F59PHIs without fuel tank skirts...
San Diego is also great in that all the transit is integrated, as opposed to other places I have been.
IIRC, Amtrak stopping at the San Clemente pier is pretty much a weekend only thing, otherwise you would have to board at San Juan Cap.
My son and I celebrated his 12th birthday a couple of years back by making use of a couple of all-dy passes for the Coaster to travel to the downtown SD station, take the trolley over to the 10th street station and then a bus up to Balboa Park for the Automobile Museum. After finishing our tour through the Auto museum, we then toured the Aerospace Museum, then caught the bus to the trolley station. We rode the trolley to Old Town, spent some time there, then rode the Coaster all the way to Oceanside and back to Encinitas. NCTD does a good job of keeping the cars clean inside and out.
I also found the Coaster to be the easiest way to get to the downtown courthouse when summoned for jury duty three years ago as there is no parking set aside for jurors at that courthouse. I'd also strongly consider using the Coaster for a jaunt to Old Town as it eliminates the parking hassle.
On Saturday December 28th I took a trip to San Diego from San Clemente. I began my trip by biking over to the 395 bus stop near the Carls Jr at Trestles and the 395 bus went through Camp Pendleton to the Oceanside Transit Center. Oceanside itself resembles a mixture of a modern and 1950s style town with that old style consumetist cheesiness. I bought a round trip ticket on the coaster. The coaster trip itself was very enjoyable passing through coasts, wetlands, various towns, and through cliffs. Overall the coaster was much more scenic the taking the Interstate 5 where you miss a lot of scenery. The coaster train had wifi which was pretty good for train wifi and definitely better than Amtrak. You had those around the bend type scenes where you see the front of train. When the coaster arrived at San Diego I got off and biked to West Broadway street and got on the #7 bus to Balboa park. Downtown San Diego is itself a mixture of super modern and traditional downtown and of high density and low density. Santa Fe Depot is itself in very good historical condition and overall the scene isn't much different then it was several decades ago. The round trip ticket could be used on the breze buses so on the way back I used it to take the 395 bus. Compared to taking the either the coaster + metrolink or the Amtrak surfliner directly from The San Clemente pier, the 395 breeze bus + coaster to San Diego saves a lot of money. Taking the 395 bus and coaster is however slower then the other two options.
Railroad to Freedom
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