Escondido Subdivision

The Escondido Sub is a 22-mile (35 km) branch railway line between Oceanside, California and Escondido, California, in the North County region of San Diego County. It is primarily used today by the Sprinter light rail and local freight trains serving Escondido industries. The former Pacific Sun Railroad ran a tri-weekly local freight service late at night, after the last Sprinter train of the day was taken out of service.

Sprinter running on the Escondido sub
NCTD route map. The Escondido Subdivision is shown in light blue.

History

The line was built in 1888, along with the Surf Line, which is the main line it connects to on its western end, and serves as the only rail connection between San Diego and Los Angeles. The line formerly served Santa Fe trains, with passenger trains operating until 1946. The North County Transit District, which operates local public transit services, purchased the line from the Santa Fe Railroad in 1992, to operate passenger rail service, which started on December 28, 2007.[1] Before passenger service could start, the tracks of the branch were re-laid with new stations and an elevated loop constructed in preparation for the Sprinter.

Local Santa Fe (later BNSF) freight trains continued to operate over the line until 2008, when the service was contracted out to PSRR; this practice ended on October 1st, 2020 when PSRR's contract with BNSF expired. For a very short amount of time, NCTD used Coaster Equipment for track repairs.

References
  1. "Full speed ahead for San Diego's SPRINTER". Progressive Railroading. January 2008. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
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