O.C. grand jury investigates closures on San Diego’s only rail connection

The Orange County Transportation Authority has prepared a formal response to the Orange County grand jury’s report on a recent series of emergency projects to protect the train tracks in San Clemente, San Diego’s only railroad link to Los Angeles and the rest of the United States.

The grand jury’s report, released June 30, concluded that the OCTA responded adequately to the emergencies. However, the panel recommended two things: 1) that the agency find ways to add sand to the beach more quickly, and 2) that it lobby state and federal agencies to make it easier and faster to get permits for maintenance work that does not rise to the emergency level.

In transit agency’s response, signed by CEO Darrell Johnson, the OCTA agrees with most of the grand jury’s findings and offers “clarification on several complex issues raised in the report.”

One of those points is the report’s statement that “abundant sand” is available for beach replenishment efforts to stabilize the train tracks.

Despite the available sand, “environmental suitability, transport logistics, and regulatory approvals remain significant challenges for public agencies in pursuit of sand nourishment projects,” states the agency’s response.

The agency’s executive committee on Thursday recommended that the formal response be approved at the OCTA board’s next meeting Sept. 8.

The grand jury conducted its review in response to complaints from the public. Most of the investigation focused on two controversial and expensive projects: a slow-moving OCTA streetcar development project, and the ongoing San Clemente railroad disruptions caused by beach erosion and bluff landslides.

Since the fall of 2021 — a span of a little less than four years — bluff failures and landslides have caused five track closures on San Diego’s only railroad connection to Los Angeles and the rest of the United States. Together, the five shutdowns amount to approximately one year of passenger service closure, the report states.

That’s almost double the number of lengthy closures on the same stretch of tracks in the previous 130 years. From the 1880s through 2020, there were only three track closures due to environmental issues, according to the grand jury.

“The tracks through the San Clemente corridor were built on the beach, as this was the flattest land in the area,” the report states.

While practical at the time, that location has become a problem over the years as the beach and bluffs have eroded.

“There is no agreement on the causes of the environmental disruption affecting the San Clemente rail corridor,” the report states. “Factors that have been blamed for bluff slides include natural ground water seeping out of the hillsides, too much irrigation of land above the bluffs by homeowners, heavy rainstorms, and vibrations caused by passing freight trains.”

Factors contributing to the beach erosion include the rocks used for riprap and revetments, sea-level rise due to climate change, and the natural movement of sand in ocean currents, experts say.

Since 2020, the OCTA has spent has spent an estimated $40 million on emergency repairs including sand replenishment, clearing debris off the tracks, building walls on the landward side of the tracks to catch debris at the bottom of the bluffs, re-grading the slopes to clear landslide debris, and placing riprap made of large boulders along the ocean side of the tracks.

The grand jury investigation came in response to complaints about the cost and the need for work.

The coastal rail route through San Clemente is San Diego County’s only passenger and freight rail connection to the rest of the United States. It’s also part of the Defense Department’s Strategic Rail Corridor Network, connecting 193 military installations nationwide.

The panel also investigated an OCTA streetcar project in Santa Ana that has seen costs increase to a total of $650 million since 2015. The project was a little less than 95% complete in May.

The “grand jury is uncertain that Santa Ana would have been as eager to proceed with this project had the city known there would be this level of construction delays, continuing cost overruns, monetary damages to local businesses, and an unknown completion date,” the report states.

The transportation agency disagrees with several of the report’s findings on the streetcar project. Its response notes that the project had widespread support when it was initially approved, and that subsequent setbacks such as international pandemic could not have been predicted.