Yesterday I posted a thread of
pictures from San Diego. Here is part 2, focusing on transit.
As I noted in the other thread, I began my tour at Santa Fe station:
The main waiting room:
The track area is to the side of the station and is uncovered. It's served by three different types of trains, all of which you can see in this picture. From left to right, light rail, Coaster commuter rail, and Amtrak.
The light rail tracks, sans train:
Most of the platforms have simple sheds for cover, but the far platform (used only by Amtrak) has a pergola. What a good idea.
The Coaster train is operated by North County Transit District and goes to Oceanside.
Amtrak trains come and go approximately hourly. San Diego is the southern terminal of the
Pacific Surfliner, Amtrak's busiest route outside of the Northeast corridor.
I am a big fan of the simple bright red livery on the light rail. It is so much more eye-catching and classic than any stripe-on-a-white-background.
This is the main downtown station. I like it. They did a good job of making an otherwise normal street station look much more substantial and important.
They have obviously purchased railcars in three batches, since there are three different varieties. All are produced by Siemens and are relatively common vehicles seen around other cities in North America.
So far I've been primarily picturing the oldest of the three varieties, the U2 model. It's also used in Edmonton and Calgary, and is the oldest modern (as opposed to pre-war vintage) light rail train operating in North America. Here is another picture:
The second model is the SD-100, which is probably the most heavily-used LRT vehicle in North America. You see this same train (or almost identical models) in Baltimore, Denver, Salt Lake, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, Portland, Sacramento, Edmonton and Calgary.
The third model is the most recent, and seems to be the current vehicle of choice for North America. It is the S70, and is also used in Houston, Charlotte and Portland. You will soon see them operating in Norfolk and Salt Lake City.
Most of the stations aren't so grand, but rather are more typical street-side stops:
Inside one of the old U2 models:
I am a fan of the bus livery as well:
I didn't ride the bus and don't know if the service is decent or not, but I do like the route maps they have at major transit centers. We have something like this at every Metro station in DC too, but ours are much more geographic and less diagrammatic.
The Greyhound station does not look very nice. There's a shocker.
The downtown transit store, where you can pick up schedules and (presumably) buy tickets. In DC we call these
Commuter Stores (there are lots of them in Arlington, and a handful elsewhere).
Taxis in San Diego, much like taxis in DC, appear to lack any rhyme or reason in color scheme.
This is the Sprinter train, operated by the same North County agency that operates the Coaster. It doesn't go to San Deigo, but runs between Oceanside and Escondido. I spent time in Escondido and wandered to the station to see the train.
North County buses are called "The Breeze".
Finally, last but not least, a much better way to travel:
Prev
Love it.
. And I never noticed San Diego has the same old U2 trains as we (& Calgary) do. We're slowly going to be replacing them over 10+ yrs.
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