Alex Wong is Data Researcher for RideSD, a nonprofit organization working to improve public transportation in San Diego.
The San Diego Association of Governments is studying concepts to speed up transit between San Ysidro and downtown San Diego, including offering an express option of the trolley’s Blue Line. Trolleys on this express option would skip less popular stops to get riders where they need to be faster.
However, Los Angeles and San Jose have cancelled light rail express services due to low ridership, and Blue Line Express would similarly underperform.
SANDAG is also studying an express bus paralleling the Blue Line that would be just as ineffective. The real solution is much simpler: increase trolley frequencies on the Blue Line as well as travel speeds downtown.
These alternatives would boost capacity and cut travel times far more than an express bus or light rail would.
The Blue Line Express’s Problems
Currently, trolleys make 11 stops on the 34-minute Blue Line trip between San Ysidro and downtown. Express trolleys travelling this corridor would skip several of them.
However, the Metropolitan Transit System discovered that two proposed concepts for the express line would both result in minimal time savings.
The first concept would cut four minutes from end-to-end trips by building passing tracks only at stations where both express and non-express trains stop, enabling the former to overtake the latter. Express trains would pass through other stations without stopping – but they’d do so at only 10 miles per hour due to regulations protecting pedestrians crossing tracks at these stations.
The second concept would allow express trolleys to skip most stations at full speed via a new, separated track spanning the entire San Ysidro-12th/Imperial corridor. Even so, end-to-end time savings would be just five-to-seven minutes for the mere 15 percent of corridor passengers who travel its full distance. Time savings for all other passengers would be less, vanishing completely for trips beginning or ending at stations skipped by express trains.
Furthermore, longer wait times would negate express train time savings, because express trains would likely come every 15 minutes versus every 7.5 for non-express trains.
Most crucially, Blue Line Express would not speed up trains through downtown, the trolley network’s slowest section, where trolleys crawl at 8.7 miles per hour. This discourages people traveling between northern and southern San Diego from taking transit, even on trips as short as Old Town to Barrio Logan. And, unfortunately, downtown streets lack room for express tracks.
How About an Express Bus?
SANDAG is also studying Rapid 640, a bus alternative to the Blue Line Express that is equally foolish.
Even with two $180 million freeway median bus-only lanes, Rapid 640 may be no faster than the trolley. SANDAG maps suggest Rapid 640 would follow 910 bus’ route. But despite 910 buses completely avoiding congestion by operating from 12:30 to 5 a.m. and skipping six out of 11 trolley stops between San Ysidro and 12th/Imperial, they still take 38 minutes to travel the corridor compared to 34 minutes for Blue Line trains. The time 910 buses save by skipping some stations is canceled out by buses detouring off the freeway onto surface streets to serve the remaining stations.
Nonetheless, Bus 910 is necessary when the Blue Line closes overnight to accommodate freight trains on its tracks. But Rapid 640 is superfluous. Blue Line trains max out at 450 passengers each and run every 7.5 minutes all-day in both directions. By comparison, 640’s 100-passenger articulated buses would run only every 15 to 30 minutes.
The Case for Five Minute Frequencies
Instead of running express trains serving only select stations between San Ysidro and downtown, all Blue Line trains should continue to stop at every station, but have frequencies increased from 7.5 to five minutes. This would benefit every station from San Ysidro to University City.
On average, this would save passengers 1.25 minutes of wait time, which would feel like cutting 3.13 minutes from on-board travel times. That’s because studies show passengers perceive one minute of wait time as equivalent to 2.5 minutes of in-vehicle time.
MTS could implement five-minute Trolley frequencies more quickly and cheaply than Blue Line Express. Both express Trolleys and five-minute frequencies would need $270 million in grade separations and $125 million in additional vehicles, plus operating expenses. But while express Trolley concepts require $500 million to $3 billion of new tracks, five-minute frequencies can be operated with existing infrastructure and therefore require zero new tracks.
Currently trains stop for red lights in Downtown. Trolley signal priority could cut down the Blue Line’s downtown travel time from 15 minutes to 10, and unlike Blue Line Express, also benefit Orange Line passengers. Removing America Plaza Station could further speed up Downtown trains, since trolleys already stop across the street at Santa Fe Depot. And MTS will straighten and grade-separate tracks to speed up trains around San Ysidro Station as part of its redesign.
Blue Line ridership was already fairly consistent throughout the day in 2019. Post-Covid increases in teleworking and MTS’ 2020 doubling of midday and late-night Blue Line frequencies further encouraged off-peak ridership.
Forget peak-focused express services and speed up Blue Line trips at all times of day instead.
How about the Coaster? It runs about once every 45 minutes with a 3 hr gap over lunch and a last train around 8 pm. Totally useless unless you are commuting downtown for work. It really needs to be more frequent
@John, you’re 100% correct about the Coaster! It shouldn’t just be peak-focused commuter rail. It needs consistent, all-day, two-way service so it can be regional rail that’s useful for all trips.
SANDAG is studying extending Coaster to the Border, which would be faster and higher-capacity than a Blue Line Express.
At the same time, 5 minute Blue Line frequencies are completely doable and completely justified, with the Blue Line’s nonstop ridership growth and transit-oriented development.
Alex, excellent and fair article—you’re on the right “track.” Having just returned from NYC, the contrast in transit systems is impossible to miss. I take the Coaster from Oceanside to downtown every day for work, and the inefficiencies really add up. For example, if you miss the 5:15 a.m. train, you’re stuck until 6:00 a.m.—a gap that makes commuting unnecessarily rigid. The system needs higher frequencies, not just new projects. Please consider doing a similar piece on the Coaster; it’s a vital lifeline for North County, but it’s not serving riders as well as it could.
Definitely agreed on the Coaster. It is usually faster than driving during peak hours. The problem is the low frequencies. The Sprinter also needs frequency boosted to at least every 15 min. Ottawa’s version of the Sprinter runs every 12 min on mostly single track, and accordingly, it has 10x the Sprinter’s per-mile ridership!
The whole key to public transportation is 10-15 minute intervals. All cities with successful public transportation have transportation arriving in 10-15 minutes intervals. It’s no secret. The solution is not bigger, just more frequent.
Agreed that frequency is king. But 10-15 minute frequencies are still too low for the Trolley. With Mission Valley and University City growing gangbusters the Blue and Green Line eventually need 5 minute frequencies.
I would love to see express trains and more frequencies.
Unfortunately, MTS has determined that it may have to cut frequencies on all-stops Blue Line trains in order to have enough time slots and space for express trains. So between the two, more frequency is definitely more important.
You missed the fact that the blue line headways are 15 minutes for a big portion of the system. I think it makes more sense to first fix the 15 minute headways.
Agreed. First step should be expanding 7.5-minute Blue Line frequencies all the way to UTC. But we should also be planning for 5-minute frequencies! Mid-Coast ridership has been growing so fast that MTS was planning to increase Mid-Coast peak frequencies to 7.5 minutes by June 2025. And that’s before University City got upzoned for 72K new jobs and 50K new residents.
Unfortunately, the Airport Trolley proposal is designed in a way that will permanently preclude both the Green and Blue Lines from achieving 5 minute frequencies.
Alex – I’m a long time San Diegan, but I’m originally from NJ. When I first moved to SD in 2004 I identified the core problem with the light rail. It’s too long for the B st corridor. The solution is to decrease the car lanes they go North- South through there. And to give priority to the light rail
The Trolley runs on C St, not B st. Agreed with you on implementing Trolley priority (as I discussed in my article) and decreasing car lanes.
Better start hiking the prices to pay for an expansion and or MTS budget. Any other tax would be unfair. Let the users pay, same as a gas tax.
Living by Seaport Village I can state you are incorrect about trolley stopping for traffic lights. The trolley approach affects the traffic light timer jumping from say 25 secs to 10. Loads of fun when trying to cross Broadway. Do not increase frequency of rail transit until rail is either put above or below ground at Broadway and Harbor locations.
While it’s a good long-term goal to relocate Downtown Blue Line tracks into a tunnel, it’s still possible to increase Blue and Green Line frequencies in Downtown. Calgary’s CTrain light rail has two lines, which both run street-level through Downtown. Each line runs every 5 to 6 minutes.
Ok but there still definitely needs to be a trolley line following the 15 up from at least the Green line up thru Escondido, so people in Mira Mesa and RB can use transit effectively.
As a Rancho Bernardo resident (since 2023, need to update my bio!) I still think the top priority should be 5 minute frequencies on the Blue and Green Lines, plus frequency improvements on the busiest bus lines.
That would include increasing 235 frequencies to 10 minutes or better. We should also build a direct access ramp allowing 235 buses to connect to the Green Line at SDSU Mission Valley.
To speed up bus 235 and other Rapid Lines even more, let’s put Pronto card readers at every Rapid stop. That’ll allow riders to pay before boarding and to board at every door. Rapid bus curbs could also be raised to match bus floor heights so wheelchair users can roll on and off buses without waiting for ramps to deploy.
Regional Rail up the 15 is a good long-term goal. But in a cash-strapped reality, we need to prioritize more immediate and affordable transit improvements like increasing frequency and speeding up boarding.
Coaster should be electrified ala Caltrain with Stadler KISS trains. This would dramatically improve service times.
Blue line should not meander through downtown but rather shoot straight through along harbor. The orange line should pick up the downtown traffic at SF depot.
Drivers are needed, they pay cheap wages due to the Union agreement.