Public transportation in San Diego County
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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 Peninsula 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 Peninsula Ranges. This includes Julian and Ramona.
- Desert communities generally refers to everything east of the Peninsula Ranges, which is the Sonoran Desert. This area is sparsely populated.
[edit] Rail services
[edit] 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
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
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 With stops in Los Angeles.
[edit] Metrolink
Metrolink is a commuter rail network connecting major cities in Southern California including San Diego via transfers at Oceanside, Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Riverside. Metrolink does not serve the immediate San Diego area.
[edit] Sprinter (2007)
The Sprinter is a light 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 five agencies.
[edit] MTS
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS), is an umbrella organization that operates and manages bus service. San Diego Transit directly operates routes in the urban core, with route numbers between 1 and 210. Inland San Diego County routes, lower ridership community routes, and rural routes in the 800 and 900 route series are outsourced to Veolia Transport and are under the MTS banner. [1]
The cities of Chula Vista and National City also operate transit service, with routes in the 700 and 600 series, respectively.
[edit] NCTD
The North San Diego County Transit District's (NCTD) "BREEZE" operates 53 bus routes in the northern portion of the county from Del Mar, Escondido, and Ramona, to the Orange County and Riverside County lines.[2] Routes are in the 300 and 400 series (with the exception of route 101).
Bus Passes and transfers may be used both on MTS and NCTD services including the bus and the trolley, but use of the COASTER may require and upgrade.
In addition, express buses from the Riverside Transit Agency connect Temecula with Oceanside.
[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 footprint 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
- Official web site for public transit in San Diego - includes information on MTS buses and San Diego Trolley
- North San Diego County Transit District - includes informaiton on the COASTER, SPRINTER, and BREEZE
- San Diego Airport
- Amtrak
- Metrolink
Rail
Locale: San Diego Trolley • COASTER • SPRINTER (2007)
Linking: Pacific Surfliner • Metrolink
Air
San Diego International Airport
