North County Transit District To Purchase 11 New Rail Cars

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA — North County Transit District announced Thursday it has agreed to purchase 11 new commuter rail cars for the COASTER service for $43 million from Bombadier Transportation.

The agreement was signed last week following authorization by NCTD's Board of Directors and funding by the California Transportation Commission.

With the purchase of these rail cars, NCTD officials say the transit agency will be in a position to significantly increase service frequencies to 30-minute headways and begin repairs and replacements to the current COASTER coaches and cab cars over the coming years.

The order includes eight coaches and two cab cars and will support the San Diego Association of Governments' 2050 Revenue Constrained Regional Plan for increased service levels. NCTD also has the option in the contract to purchase up to 27 additional cars.

NCTD currently operates a fleet of seven locomotives and 28 BiLevel cars in COASTER operations from Oceanside to downtown San Diego. COASTER rail service currently provides 22 regularly scheduled weekday trips and eight weekend trips. Time between trains vary from 45 minutes to an hour during peak periods and more than 3.5 hours during the non-peak period.

"As we look to the future, NCTD will be in a position to continue moving forward, offering customers an outstanding riding experience and providing increased service along the rail line," said Tony Kranz, NCTD board chair and Encinitas councilman. "With these two additional trainsets in the fleet, commuters will have a number of train runs throughout the day to meet their needs, and that really makes the decision to try transit an easy one."

With the addition of the expansion equipment, NCTD will be able to increase frequencies of trains. Peak-period frequencies will be improved to 30- minute gaps between trains, and non-peak period frequencies will be increased to one hour. This will result in 42 trains per day, nearly doubling current service.

"SANDAG and NCTD are committed to improving the Los Angeles-San Diego- San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, which supports goods movement, commuters and our nation's military," said SANDAG Chair and Poway Mayor Steve Vaus. "Just last year, the SANDAG Board of Directors approved $58.8 million in funding for additional train sets to meet our goals of increased capacity, speed and safety."

The cars will be built at Bombardier's manufacturing site in Thunder Bay, Canada. Deliveries are scheduled to take place in the fall 2022. After testing and commissioning, the cars will begin to enter service that winter.

— City News Service