California's North County Transit District Performs Final Design for Grassroot Sprinter Rail Line

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). In February 2003, the North County Transit District (NCTD) (Oceanside, California) received approval for the last $152 million, in the form of a federal grant that was needed to fully fund the $351 million Sprinter passenger rail line project (PEC 06004053, Plant 1060828). Since then, NCTD has been completing the final design and engineering needed to get the project into the construction stage before the end of the year.

Current plans call for the construction, on the 22-mile project, to begin in December 2003. The new rail line, which will include 15 stations, will run from Oceanside, California to Escondido, California with the intent of providing quality rail service to those communities in 2005, when construction is completed.

The Sprinter project will use diesel multiple units (DMUs) rather then light rail cars. DMUs can travel alone or in tandem with additional cars and because they are diesel driven, they require no overhead wires.

North County Transit District, created in 1975, supplies public transportation services to all of North San Diego County, California. NCTD provides service to a geographical area of 1,020 square miles extending from Del Mar in the South, Northeasterly to Escondido, North to the Riverside County line and West to the Orange County line, with connecting bus service to San Clemente. The area includes the unincorporated communities of Fallbrook and Ramona as well as Camp Pendleton Marine Corp Base. Other cities in the service area include Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista and San Marcos. The total population of NCTD's service area is 800,000.