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[quote user="CMStPnP"] [quote user="Sam1"] I was in San Diego in January, and I took the trolley to San Ysidro, which is the last stop before the Mexican border.  The trolley does not run on the freight tracks, and to the best of my knowledge never has.  It parallels the freight tracks from at least National City. [/quote] Wow you aren't very observant of the switches from the MTS Trolley line to connect to the Freight line.     Yes Freights do use the San Diego MTS lines and below is a video of one doing just that.......note the canetary above the tracks.       Between San Diego and the Mexican border, not sure if it is just portions or whole but it is shared trackage with Freight operations, it's really obvious if you look out the window and see the connections and you can also feel the track is rougher.      Anyways video below is of the operation........ +++http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fwpWSPys6Y It's one reason why San Diego to the border payed for itself faster than the rest of the system. [/quote] You are partially correct.  I did not ride the trolley in the middle of the night.  The freight tracks parallel the trolley tracks all the way to the border. There are connections at points along the way for freight trains to access the trolley tracks so that they can cross over to serve the points on the east side of the tracks. What I said is that the trolley does not run on the freight tracks. I did not say that the freight trains don't run on the trolley tracks.  Clearly, they do after hours.  What I should have said, I supposed, is that it does not appear, based on a daytime ride, that the trolley runs on the freight tracks. The MTS owns the trolley tracks all the way to San Ysidro.  It also owns the SD&AE right of way, which runs from centre city San Diego to the International Border. The SD&AE also has a number of other branch lines. It contracts to provide or allow the providing of freight services over its rights-of-way during non-service Trolley hours. In 2013 it had miscellaneous operating revenues of $4.9 million, of which $159,583 was generated from the SD&AE as rentals for the use of MTS's tracks for freight operations. All this information can be found in the company's Annual Report, plus supplements, for 2013. I did not notice any change in the ride quality in January. Lets see, you said you were there two years ago. Is it possible that the SDMTA ground the rail that you believed was rough?  I will be in San Diego from June 22nd through June 28th.  I will have another ride down to San Ysidro.  I will let the readers know if the coins in my pockets begin to shake when we hit the supposed rough spots. Paid for itself faster than the rest of the system?  In FY13 SDMTS had operating revenues of $96.6 million, and operating expenses of $328 million, resulting in a loss of $231.4 million. Depreciation was $92.8 million. MTS required an infusion of $57.7 million from the federal government, $71.9 million from the Transportation Development Act, $9.9 million from the State Transit Assistance Fund, $5.2 million from California State Revenue, $32.3 million from Transfer Net Funds, and $7 million from other local subsidies. Look it up.  It is on Page 9 of the SDMTS FY13 Annual Financial Report. For FY13 the combined farebox recovery ratio for San Diego Trolley, Inc., San Diego Transit Corporation, and MTS Contracted Services was a combined 39.92 per cent.  In FY13, as per Page 74 of the annual report, San Diego Transit recovered 29.01 per cent of its costs from the fare box, compared to 52.98 per cent for the San Diego Trolley and 42.31 per cent for MTS Contracted Services.  These recover rates are better than those For DART, to be sure, as well as many other U.S. transit authorities, but to say that it is paying for itself is a stretch.  It does not come close. You could have made your point without the put down, i.e. you are not very observant.
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