SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — Two daily Pacific Surfliner round trips will resume through the San Clemente area as of Wednesday, March 6, providing through service between San Diego and Los Angeles for the first time since a Jan. 24 landslide at Mariposa Point.
The Orange County Transportation Authority announced today (Tuesday, March 5) that Metrolink and the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency have agreed that, with the 33 steel beams in place that are needed for the foundation of a catchment wall, the morning and evening service can safely resume. Midday service will continue to require bus connections to allow construction work to continue.
Through service will be offered southbound on train 562, which departs Los Angeles at 6:10 a.m. and arrives in San Diego at 9:04 a.m , and train 784, which originates in Goleta at 1:31 p.m. It departs Los Angeles at 5:10 p.m. and arrives in San Diego at 8:04 p.m. Northbound, through trains will be No. 765, which leaves San Diego at 6:01 a.m., arrives in LA at 8:57 a.m., and continues to Goleta, as well as train 587, which departs San Diego at 5:01 p.m. and arrives in Los Angeles at 8:04 p.m.
This schedule puts the morning trains through the work zone in San Clemente between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., and the evening trains through the area 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. While this will reduce the work window, the OCTA said that the project team still anticipates being able to complete the wall this month.
Bus connections between Irvine and Oceanside will be continue to be offered for trains 769, 770, 774, 777, 785 and 790. An updated schedule is available here. More information is available at the Surfliner website.
Metrolink service through the area remains suspended.
Work on the 200-foot-long wall began last week [see “Work begins on wall …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 28, 2024]. It will be similar to a nearby wall built last year to address a slide below the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, one of the five incidents at three locations in San Clemente that have disrupted rail operations since September 2022.
