RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A plan for passenger rail service between Los Angeles and the Coachella Valley — the area including Palm Springs and Indio — has moved forward, with the Riverside County Transportation Commission adopting a service plan for the proposed route.
Patch.com reports the commission has certified the final Tier I environmental impact statement/environmental impact report for the proposed service. A Tier 2 environmental review would still be required before any construction can begin, which could still be 10 years off and cost up to $1 billion.
The website Urbanize Los Angeles reports the planned 144-mile corridor would see two daily round trips between Los Angeles and Coachella. It would make use of an existing Metrolink line and stations in Fullerton and Riverside, but would require significant infrastructure upgrades on Union Pacific’s Yuma Subdivision, including addition of a third main line, a new bridge at the Santa Ana River, and other improvements.
Plans call for up to five new stations in addition to the existing Palm Springs stop used by Amtrak’s Sunset Limited.
A billion dollars …. for what patronage?
2 1/2 daily trips, technically. The Sunset Limited runs triweekly on the route too.
Actually…it looks like the plan is to use BNSF from Union Station south through Fullerton and Riverside, then cut over at Colton to UPRR the rest of the way. I wonder why parallel the Sunset Limited the whole distance? Might just be a capacity issue on UPRR. I don’t think any other Metrolink services use the Sunset Route, though one roughly parallels it, so maybe the cost of upgrades on that part was too great for just those trains.
The justification of all this for two daily round trips (half of whose length will occur on the BNSF, including the Santa Ana River bridge) is that the improvements would benefit future extensions, or new service to Phoenix. This environmental review has to have been going on for about five years. Somewhere around 2015 UP permitted a demonstration train to Palm Springs timed to coincide with music festival. I might live long enough to see it?
All of that for 2 daily round trips?
Comical, it could still be 10 years away.