HISTORY OF RAILROADS IN

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History of Railroads in San Diego

To become an important commercial and trading center on the west coast, a population center would require a port and an inland transportation system. The development of railroads as the primary form of land transportation in the mid-19th century made this mode a necessity for any major city. But compared to ’s’ other cities, San Diego’s first major railroad arrived late. There were many proposed lines, including the Texas and Pacific that would have San Diego, as its Pacific terminus, but that line was never built. The Atlantic and Pacific line was another road that would be built into California along the 35th parallel, and was under the control of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (ATSF). This proposed route provided San Diego to build a line to this route, and obtain an outlet to the east.

The California Southern Railroad Company was chartered on October 12th, 1880, with the purpose of constructing a line from National City to San Bernardino, and on to Barstow. The California Southern was constructed from National City north to San Luis Rey, now named Oceanside, by the end of 1881. Just north of Oceanside, the line curved to the right, following up the Santa Margarita River, to Fallbrook Station, in the valley about two miles north of the town of Fallbrook. Then it continued up through the rugged Temecula Canyon and continued towards San Bernardino. The road was opened from National City to Colton on August 21, 1882, and reached San Bernardino on September 12th 1883. But an agreement between the Santa Fe and the major California Railroad, Southern Pacific stopped the Atlantic and Pacific at the Arizona border. The Southern Pacific controlled the interchange at Colton, and traffic to and from San Diego was strangled.

Then came the great floods of February 1884, the wettest season of record. About 30 miles of line in the Temecula Canyon was washed out. $250,000 was needed for the repairs, but the California Southern was in financial trouble and could only raise $114,000 towards the repairs. But Southern Pacific rival, the Santa Fe was still seeking a port outlet in California. Shut out of Los Angels and by the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe acquired control of the California Southern to obtain its seaport outlet. With funding from the Santa Fe, the line was restored, and San Diego bay was connected by to the east via the Santa Fe. In 1888, Santa Fe completed the “Surf Line” along the coast. This extension was built from the California Southern station at Oceanside to Orange County. In 1890, the Santa Fe completed a line from San Bernardino to Los Angeles, which provided San Diego with an outlet to the east through the Santa Fe lines in Los Angles via the “Surf Line”. As commerce in the Los Angeles basin increased, the Santa Fe moved its operations from National City to Los Angeles.

The second flood of February 1891 ended railway service between Fallbrook and Temecula and Santa Fe gave up on the through San Diego to San Bernardino line. In 1893, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad was declared bankrupt and a receivership followed. Out of it emerged the present corporation, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company. After the turn of the century, the Santa Fe took over the Southern California Railway. Santa Fe realized that Los Angeles was the marketing

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center of Southern California. Emphasis shifted to that port and surrounding facilities. They gradually moved the management offices and machine shops of the railroad to San Bernardino in order to have greater leverage in the competition for the Los Angeles shipping and transport business. Los Angeles took predominance and the route to the east that was established by the “Surf Line” from San Diego became the only rail link. San Diego became a branch line of Los Angeles rather than a major terminus.

San Diego leaders determined that another independent rail link was desirable. The San Diego and Arizona was formed from the local San Diego railroads, and began the construction of the line directly east. The opening of the San Diego and Arizona in 1919 provided another rail outlet from San Diego via a connection to the Southern Pacific at El Centro. Traffic could be interchanged at the location and forwarded to the east via the Sunset Line. This routing bypassed the Santa Fe and Los Angles, and provided a com0etitive rail option to shippers in San Diego. The Southern pacific acquired full control of the SD&A in 1933, renaming it the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. But the line was never very profitable to the Southern Pacific. In 1951, passenger service was terminate, leaving Santa Fe the only rail passenger operator in San Diego with the “” trains which operated between Los Angeles and San Diego. Passenger trains continued to be a money-losing proposition for the nation’s railroads. In 1971, the federal government assumed operations of mast passenger trains and formed the National Rail Passenger Corporation (). The “San Diegan” route was retained in the national system. The Santa Fe became a freight only operator in San Diego. CALTRANS became involved in San Diegan service in 1976 with state support for the AMTRAK route. Further support by the state led to increased round trips, increasing congestion on the line.

The severe damage to the Desert Line portion of the SD&AE in1976 led Southern Pacific to petition to abandon the line. But an Agreement was reached with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board, where the MTDB would purchase the line in a fully rehabilitated condition to operate light rail between San Diego and San Ysidro, and continue freight operations. Kyle Railways was the short line operator that continued the freight operations, but economic conditions combined with fires and additional environmental events that closed the Desert Line caused Kyle to exit from the operation in 1982. Another operator, RAILTEX, was chosen to continue freight operations but the Desert Line operations where never restored. Fires resulted in the collapse of tunnels No. 8 and No. 16 closed the line for good in 1983. This left San Diego with a single rail outlet via the Santa Fe through Los Angeles.

In 1989, government entities formed the Los Angeles-San Diego Rail Corridor Agency (LOSSAN) as a joint powers agency with the objective of increasing rail service on the 128-mile route between San Diego and Los Angeles, and centralizing the work of handling rail improvements on the line. The bulk of the corridor was owned by the Santa Fe. In 1992, Santa Fe sold the “Surf Line” from San Diego to Fullerton to the San Diego North Country Transit District (NCTD). NCTD was inaugurating a service from San Diego to Oceanside called the “” and formed the San Diego Northern Railroad as the operating entity for the line. Santa Fe continued to have

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trackage rights over the line to operate its freight traffic. The 43-mile commuter line began operations between San Diego and Oceanside. But the “Coaster” trips combined with increased AMTRAK San Diegan runs limited the Santa Fe to specific operating windows.

The trend towards consolidation in the national rail system continued in the 1990s. In 1995. the Santa Fe merged with the Burlington Northern forming the Burlington Northern Santa FE (BNSF). In 1996, the Southern Pacific was merged into the Union Pacific (UP), with the UP taking over the operations between Plaster City and El Centro.

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HISTORY OF THE SAN DIEGO & ARIZONA EASTERN

A local San Diego businessman by the name of John D. Sprekcles, son of a San Francisco based sugar magnate, saw the need for and independent rail line to the east without going through Los Angeles. A survey for a line east of San Diego, and a route that swung south through Mexico and running through Carrizo Gorge to the desert for a connection with the Southern Pacific at El Centro was chosen. On December 14, 1906, Spreckles announced that he would from the San Diego & Arizona Railroad Company to build the 148-mile line. Southern Pacific president E. H. Harriman decided that his road needed a connection to San Diego, and agreed to silently fund the project. The through route was chosen through Mexico because of lower grades, but the Mexican government ordered the SD&A to form the Ferrocarril Tijuana y Tecate to construct and hold a 99 year lease on the 44 mile Mexican rail segment.

In 1909, Harriman died and the new management at Southern pacific cut off further funding. Spreckles continued construction on the line using his own funding. . The effort continued, despite flooding and encounters with revolutionaries during the Mexican Civil War. But by 1917, a new agreement was reached with southern Pacific and the line returned to joint ownership. The line was completed in 1919, with John D. Spreckles driving the “golden spike” on November 19.

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Early operations were to reveal that the elements would have a continuing negative effect on the line. In 1926, 1927, and 1929 rains take out large amounts of trackage east of San Diego. These were not to be the last instances of the line being shut down due to fires and floods.

The great depression took its toll on most railroads and the SD&A was no exception. Losses mounted. On October 24, 1932, financial problems force John D. Spreckels’ heirs to transfer their share of SD&A ownership to SP for $2.8 million. The railroad was renamed the San Diego & Arizona Eastern (SD&AE). Problems with Mother Nature continued as floods, land slides, and fires closed three tunnels resulting in over $600,000 in repairs. Despite deficits, the new SD&AE survived the 1930s. World War II, and the subsequent defense build up in the San Diego area led to record traffic and revenues for the line. But the post war recession returned the SD&AE to marginal profitability. Truck traffic began to siphon off much of the local traffic. On January 11, 1951 SD&AE ended passenger service due to years of continued declining patronage. And the opening of Interstate 8 diverted more of the lines precious freight traffic to trucks.

The Southern Pacific relinquished control of the Tijuana y Tecate to the Mexican on July 1, 1970, to Mexican National Railways Ferocarril Sonora Baja California, S.A. de C.V. (SBC). The SD&AE would pay SBC for through traffic on a carload basis, and SBC would pay carload and per diem charges to SD&AE for originating and terminating traffic.

On September 10, 1976, Hurricane Kathleen destroyed major sections of track and bridges on the Desert Line. The ICC established a detour route from Niland, CA to Los Angeles for transfer to the ATSF for delivery to the SD&AE in San Diego. This re- routing caused increased transit times and resulted in a reduction in business. SP estimated that it would cost $1.27 million for repairs, while the railroad lost $1.1 million on the line in 1975, the last full year of operation. As a result of the cost analysis, Southern Pacific decided that the potential revenues of the SD&AE were not sufficient to warrant the investment that would be required to restore the line. Without a connection to the Southern Pacific mainline to the east, the undamaged portion of the line could only operate through cooperation of the Santa Fe railroad, a major competitor for rail freight business to and from San Diego. This combination of circumstances led to the decision to petition the ICC to abandon the line. At that time Southern Pacific offered to sell the railroad to any entity willing to assume responsibility for its freight operations.

The petition to abandon was denied. But another option soon presented itself to southern Pacific. San Diego had been investigating the possibility of constructing a rapid transit system in the city. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) was established in 1976. The Board reviewed its options and realized that the purchase of the existing right of way would be less costly the purchasing existing real estate for the establishment of a San Diego to San Ysidro light rail transit line. Agreement was reached with the San Diego City council, and a purchase price was

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agreed to. On August 20, 1979, MTDB purchased the SD&AE in restored condition for $18.1 million. Southern Pacific kept the profitable Plaster City El Centro segment. The MTDB signed a 10-year agreement with Kyle Railways to operate and maintain freight service over the SD&AE.

Kyle Railways agreed to pay MTDB a flat fee plus a sliding percentage for use of the railroad. But there were issues that remained to be resolved for the Mexican operations. In 1979-1980 Tijuana suffered the worst flooding in its history. Much of the railroad crossing over the Tijuana River was washed out. The 1970 agreement called for SBC to maintain the Tijuana y Tecate Line for SD&AE, but these repairs were not completed until 1982. Restoration led to full through service on the SD&AE. On June 18, 1983, fire destroyed two bridges in the Carrizo east of Jacumba. High labor costs, and a sagging copper and grain market to the east led to Kyle fling a request with the ICC to abandon the line, citing losses of $100,000 per month. The ICC denied the request for abandonment in April 1984, but Kyle ceased operations as the operator of the SD&AE.

MTDB began looking for another freight operator. Short Line operator RAILTEX of San Antonio, TX was chosen and an agreement was signed on March 8, 1984 subject to ICC approval. On August 8, the ICC approved the agreement. RAILTEX began operations from Tijuana to Tecate on October 18, 1984. The new operating road was called the San Diego & Imperial Valley (SDIV). Further agreement to operate the Baja California section of the SD&AE was reached with the Mexican Government on August 1 1986.

Before entering into agreement with the MTDB to operate the line, RAILTEX told the MTDB and the ICC that it wanted new labor agreements. The new terms were accepted by both agencies, and most of the 55 employees returned to southern pacific. By 1989, the SD&IV only had 18 employees.

Disasters continued to plague the line. On March 19, 1985, a fire caused the collapse of Tunnel No. 16. Another fire caused the collapse of Tunnel No. 8. On July 14, 1989, SDIV began repairs to the Desert Line as a prelude to service to Imperial County, but the insurance settlement was insufficient to cover reconstruction costs and through service to the valley was not restored.

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RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

In 1995, the decision was made by the Mexican government to privatize its government run rail system, FNM. After the failure of tow proposals for the concession, the government of Mexico made the award to the Government of Baja California. A result, a new concession was granted to Carrizo Gorge Railway on July 1, 2001, to operate the Baja California portion of the SD&AE.

A fire destroyed Tunnel No. 3 in 1999. This severed the line between Tecate and Campo. A new short line called Carrizo Gorge, which was operating tourist trains for the San Diego Railroad Museum, stepped in to help restore the line. It assisted in clearing the obstruction by daylighting the tunnel. This effort won the Carrizo Gorge Railway the notice of the Baja California government.

Interest in re-opening the “Desert Line” was renewed by initiatives of the Carrizo Gorge Railway. San Diego government agencies including SANDAG conducted studies in 1995 that showed the re-opening of the Desert Line could be economically feasible in the post NAFTA environment. A follow on study for SANDAG in 1999 indicated market conditions could have improved, especially with the possibility of container traffic from the Port of Ensenada via a proposed Ensenada to Tecate rail line. Local congressional representative Bob Filner also showed interest in re-opening the line and obtained a $10 million dollar budget line towards that effort. In early 2002, Carrizo Gorge Railway and Rail America (which acquired RAILTEX in 2001) began negotiating an operating rights agreement whereby Carrizo Gorge would be granted rights to operate on the line. On May 9th, the MTDB met to discuss the agreement reached between RailAmerica and Carrizo Gorge regarding the Desert Line. RailAmerica, operating through the San Diego and Imperial Valley (SD&IV) Railroad, agreed to assign its operating rights to Gorge Railway (Carrizo) to the Desert Line. The MTDB board unanimously approved the agreement. Carrizo Gorge Railway began its rehabilitation efforts on the Desert Line in late 2002. The line was opened for revenue service in 2005. The majority of the traffic moved on the line consists of sand.

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