Public transportation in San Diego County

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Contents

The following is a list of public transportation systems and facilities in San Diego County.
Note: Due to San Diego County's massive size, the following information is focused mainly on "coastal", "North County", and "inland" (inland is generally referred to as "East County") communities and not so much on "Mountain" or "Desert" cities. Please help expand.

[edit] Location terminology
  • North County generally refers to Del Mar and everything north of it to Camp Pendleton.
  • Inland (Inland Valleys or East County) generally refers to the cities between San Diego and the Peninsular Ranges. This includes Santee, El Cajon, and Lakeside. This term may also loosely include La Mesa, due to the fact the high schools there are in the same school district and located in the same general area, but usually doesn't because it isn't located in the "valley".
  • South Bay (South Bay Communities) generally refers to everything south of National City and may also include National City in the classification. "South Bay" is referring to its location on the "south" end of the San Diego Bay.
  • Mountain communities generally refers to the communities that reside after Lakeside on the Peninsular Ranges. This includes Julian and Ramona.
  • Desert communities generally refers to everything east of the Peninsular Ranges, which is the Sonoran Desert. This area is sparsely populated.

[edit] Rail services

[edit] San Diego Trolley

Main article: San Diego Trolley

The San Diego Trolley is a light rail that serves the metropolitan area; downtown, east county, south bay communities, and the San Ysidro international border.

[edit] San Diego Coaster

Main article: COASTER

The San Diego Coast Express Rail, or Coaster is a commuter rail that connects the North County area to the Metro area. The major use of ridership is for working commuters of the north county area to get to downtown.

[edit] Amtrak Pacific Surfliner

Main article: Pacific Surfliner

The Pacific Surfliner is a 350-mile (563 km) Amtrak passenger train route serving communities on the coast of Southern California between San Diego and San Luis Obispo.

[edit] Metrolink

Metrolink connects major cities in Southern California including San Diego via transfers at Oceanside, Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Metrolink doesn't serve the immediate San Diego area.

[edit] Sprinter (2007)

Main article: SPRINTER

The Sprinter is a commuter rail line under construction between Oceanside and Escondido, California. The service will use the existing 22-mile long Escondido Branch trackage of the San Diego Northern Railroad. Station platforms are under construction for the line's fifteen stops serving the cities of Oceanside (western terminus), Vista, San Marcos, and Escondido (eastern terminus).

Sprinter service will be operated with Siemens Sprinter diesel multiple units manufactured in Germany, where they are widely used.

[edit] Bus services

Buses in San Diego County are operated by two agencies.

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) currently has 29 fixed routes, 7 express and 22 local, running throughout San Diego, El Cajon, La Mesa, National City, Santee and portions of the county's unincorporated areas.[1]

The North San Diego County Transit District's "BREEZE" operates 53 bus routes in the northern portion of the county from Del Mar and Escondido, to the Orange County and Riverside County lines.[2]

[edit] Road services

[edit] Public roads

San Diego County has an extensive network of public roadways that allows vehicle drivers and bicyclists convenient direct access to all practical destinations in the county.

[edit] Bikeways

Public bikeways in San Diego County consist of Class 1 bike paths, which are separate from the public roads, Class 2 bike lanes, which are demarcated space on the roadways designated to be used primary by bicyclists, and Class 3 bike routes, which are regular surface streets designated as being particularly attractive to bicyclists. SANDAG publishes a map which shows all of these bikeways in the greater San Diego Metropolitan area annually, and it is available at most bike shops.

[edit] Air services

San Diego International Airport is the second busiest single-runway commercial airport in the world, with approximately 600 departures and arrivals carrying 40,000 passengers each day, and over 17 million passengers a year.

However, it occupies a much smaller compared to other airports in the United States. As a result, recently, numerous plans have been proposed to either add another airport in the area, or relocate it entirely.

[edit] Ferry services

The Coronado Commuter Ferry takes morning and afternoon commuters across San Diego Bay from the San Diego Broadway Pier, to the Naval Air Station North Island, and the San Diego Broadway Pier. The San Diego Harbor Excursions operates ferry shuttles directly to and from the San Diego Broadway Pier and the San Diego Broadway Pier.

[edit] External links