SANTA MARIA, Calif. — A section of Union Pacific’s Coast Line that connects the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles remains closed to freight and passenger service following a series of winter storms that pummeled the Golden State during the first two weeks of January.
Union Pacific crews are currently working to stabilize a bridge near Honda Point, roughly 30 miles south of Santa Maria inside Vandenberg Space Force Base, that was taken out of service Jan. 10 after it was discovered excessive flooding had eroded the earth that supports the bridge’s footings.
Honda Point is most notably known as the location of the “Honda Point Disaster” where seven U.S. Navy destroyers ran aground on the night of Sept. 8, 1923, killing 23.
“A bridge foundation washout between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo is impacting our operations through that area,” said UP in a Jan. 11 announcement to customers. “We expect the bridge to be out of service for up to two weeks. Our operations team is working on alternate routing for impacted shipments.”
The closure of this section of the Santa Barbara Subdivision has caused Amtrak to cancel Coast Starlight service between Emeryville and Los Angeles and all Pacific Surfliner service between San Luis Obispo and Goleta [see “Slide threat cancels Pacific Surfliners …,” Trains News Wire, Jan. 11, 2023].
A Pacific Surfliner Twitter post on Jan. 10 said that the tracks north of Goleta would be closed for 10 to 16 days beginning Jan. 12.
UP freight traffic that normally travels north out of Los Angeles for interchange with the Santa Maria Valley Railroad at Guadalupe, located 8 miles to the west of Santa Maria, has remained stagnant since the Jan. 10 closure .
During a similar closure of the Coast Line in August 2021 when a bridge was replaced at Narlon, roughly 20 miles south of Santa Maria and also on Vandenberg property, UP opted to reroute freight traffic through Northern California, then south via Watsonville, Salinas, Paso Robles, and San Luis Obispo before reaching Guadalupe.
The bridge near Honda Point was built between 1897 and 1898. Over the past week, multiple UP work trains have been dispatched to the area with equipment and materials to assist with stabilizing the affected bridge.
UP estimates the line will reopen before the end of the month.
