Why this matters
The South Bay-to-Sorrento Valley corridor accounts for 30% of the region's weekday peak period travel.
The San Diego Association of Governments will now study other potential designs for its proposed Purple Line, which plans to connect commuters between San Ysidro and Sorrento Valley.
SANDAG has discussed the project for years, pointing to growing congestion on interstates 5 and 805. Commuters traveling between the South Bay and Sorrento Valley account for 30% of the region’s weekday peak period travel, due in part to Sorrento Valley’s status as a biotech hub and San Diego’s largest employment center. Almost 170,000 people work there.
But the latest findings of a study, presented to the regional planning agency’s Transportation Committee last week, found that it would cost as much as $24 billion to build just a 22-mile portion of the rail line and would see lower ridership than expected.
SANDAG’s latest study envisions the Purple Line as part of a subway system meant to bring commuters to the area faster than San Diego’s existing public transit routes. It focused on building a segment that would reach as south as National City, arriving in 10-minute intervals at additional stops in City Heights, Mission Valley, Kearny Mesa and University City.
SANDAG project manager Cecily Taylor said the study projected ridership of the section to be lower than that of the Blue Line, San Diego’s most-used trolley route that can take users from the U.S.-Mexico border to the UC San Diego area.
About 30,000 daily riders, one-third of them new users, would take the Purple Line segment. That’s compared to the Blue Line’s 70,000 daily riders.
“So that’s definitely meaningful demand, but we were expecting to see a higher ridership for this kind of faster, metro-type of transit mode,” Taylor said.
Taylor said the Purple Line projections are likely impacted by the lack of a connection to the rest of South County and the border.
SANDAG will start later this year the next stage of planning: studying alternatives. A 30-month study would evaluate all options for the line, from light rail to bus services and even a driverless system.
The new design will also have to consider the state’s interest in potentially extending Amtrak service to San Ysidro, Taylor said.
Any construction of the Purple Line would likely be done in phases, and could take decades before the service would come online. SANDAG also is undergoing an update to its regional plan, a 30-year blueprint for transportation projects across the county.
“From the regional plan perspective, where we identify what are all of the projects that we can build by 2050, maybe the Purple Line will scale back and say that only one or two of the Purple lines are really realistic to be open in 2050,” Taylor said.
Staff also are planning new rapid bus routes, including one that would serve as a precursor for the Purple Line and connect San Ysidro, Kearny Mesa and the UCSD area. It’s expected to begin service by 2035.
Type of Content
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
