Your latest installment in the occasional Trains News Wire feature offering links to online articles of interest:
— The New York Times takes a long look at the fight in Del Mar, Calif., over relocating the former Santa Fe Surf Line, and frames it as part of coastal erosion issues statewide. The link should allow non-subscribers access.
— While the article may be exaggerating a tad by calling the moment in question “one of the most famous scenes in movie history,” this story from Oregon’s Redmond Spokesman on a Buster Keaton film that blew up a bridge as a train crossed is still a good one. Readers may need to provide an email address for access.
— The advocacy group Transportation For America looks at the recent Federal Railroad Administration Long-Distance study (which is available here) and suggests it should have focused on projects that could be brought to fruition relatively quickly.
This is just the beginning. There is no place I know of where coastal erosion can be overcome permanently, and now it’s accelerating. The tracks in Del Mar and other places along the Pacific coast are the most vulnerable right now. But everywhere there are low-lying tracks in coastal areas (BNSF in Washington, NJ Transit North Jersey Coast Line and the Amtrak Northeast Corridor spring to mind immediately), they are vulnerable as sea level rises. And reports suggest that’s happening a lot faster than anticipated.
The seemingly immense cost is what’s really slowing things down in arriving at a solution. Losing the Surf Line permanently is an option of course, but there are big costs for letting that happen, too.
All the economic development served by these rail lines, especially adjacent to them, are at risk, too. Makes some of the efforts to address climate change (EV charging infrastructure, for example) seem almost quaint.
What a dead end! I guess the railroad line will eventually be abandoned. It’s really sad now that the tracks have been in that location for over 100 years. Meanwhile, the NYT article is so enlightening.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
They can, foolishly and expensively, try to keep the rising ocean away from the tracks or, more sensibly but still expensively, move the tracks away from the ocean. The problem is the new tracks will have to go through, or under, somebody’s million dollar back yard.
They need to fix those tracks. But the problem is they have a worthless mayor nimbys living right close to the coast and that useless Governor named Galvin Newsom and his aunt Nancy Pelosi pulling the strings. The problem is nobody rebuilt in this area properly they had a fire 6 months ago, they had heavy rains, the ground is sinking in places, most recently they had a sinkhole, and landslides are destroying the landscape! They need to let Amtrak and BNSF conduct a study in this area and get some pilings in the ground before it is too late. If they don’t get those tracks nailed down and stabilize the slope the city of Del Mar will be gone tracks and homes will head into the sea and a landslide will destroy the town. Del Mar more has three options to fix this and they need to choose one quick. Option one build a seawall the obvious option, often two place pilings, an option three move the tracks. If this is not done by the next storm we are going to lose the surfline around and the coastline subdivision and San Diego and Baja will be cut off from the national network. We need to fix this and we need to fix it now!
I read the NYT piece on the Del Mar “fight” along with the comments. Can’t believe how many people thinking that the I-5 corridor option would be easy.