San Diego has long talked of a new ‘Purple’ Trolley line. What could it look like?

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San Diego has long talked of a new ‘Purple’ Trolley line. What could it look like?

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego’s regional leaders have long discussed adding a new “Purple” line to the Metropolitan Transit System’s rail network. This week, the region’s planning agency got an early glimpse into what that could look like.

The Purple Line has been pitched as a new north-south train connection for communities in the nearly 30-mile corridor from San Ysidro to Sorrento Mesa — residential areas and job centers where the region’s current transit network has less reach.

(San Diego Association of Governments)

During a presentation to the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Mobility Working Group on Thursday, Cecily Taylor, the regional planner heading up the Purple Line project, gave an overview about her team’s work to craft concepts of how the new line could be brought to life.

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As Taylor detailed, the most comprehensive version of the project her team looked at was to build a subway-style line — one that is mostly underground — with a few sections of aerial track comparable to the UCSD Blue Line extension.

This, she said, would be the best option for a light rail transit line through the whole corridor given its mountainous terrain. An underground train would also have the smallest impact on the neighborhoods themselves and the surrounding environment.

Potential alignment options could connect with existing transit hubs like the SDSU Mission Valley Station and the UTC Transit Center.

While the goal would be to link the San Ysidro hub as well, Taylor noted their initial focus could be the sections of the line running from National City to Mission Valley — areas their modeling showed the highest ridership demand. This part of the line similarly has less overlap with other transit projects in the works.

Conceptual maps of some of the alignment options for the Purple Line can be found below.

(San Diego Association of Governments)

(San Diego Association of Governments)

With these concepts, Taylor said SANDAG can now turn to technical planning, which would encompass drawing up all of the potential alignment options and alternatives — like enhanced bus service or a street-level Trolley line — to then work towards a preferred option.

“The next phase of planning will require a broader look at all of the possible options for this project — the different routes, the different modes, where the stations could go — and we’d want to be sure to bring our different partners and the public along with us,” she explained.

“That process will definitely take time to make sure that the project we land on will be the best for the community.”

This stage could also give the planning agency a clearer picture of how they could pay for the project. For the full subway-style light-rail line, the cost is estimated to range from about $19 billion to $23 billion just for the tracks.

A portion of the price tag could be covered by federal and state funds, she noted, but the region would still need to earmark local dollars — something which could be a challenge down the line.

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“There are a lot of state and federal programs that can help us make this project a reality,” Taylor explained, “but all of those require a local match and for a project of this scale we know that will be a big commitment for our region.”

SANDAG’s regional planners will pivot to this technical analysis sometime next year, after the conceptual study is presented to the Board of Directors in January.

Given the engineering intricacies that would need to be worked through to flesh out each of the options on the table before paring down to a few recommendations, it could be upwards of a decade before crews could get to the design and construction phase of the project, Taylor said.

“Really this is why we do planning: We had an idea and we wanted to explore what would be possible and analyze how that would perform,” she explained. “So we do feel like this was a valuable study to look at this next level of transit technology in the region and evaluate what would be a forward-thinking project.”

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