Limited Amtrak service to return through shuttered Orange County corridor

Travis Schlepp
·2 min read

Some passenger rail service is being allowed to resume in Orange County where a landslide has stalled train traffic for more than a month.

Oh Tuesday, the Orange County Transportation Authority announced that Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains would be allowed to travel through San Clemente beginning Wednesday morning.

The busy train corridor has been shutdown to passenger rail service, with limited freight traffic being allowed through overnight, since Jan. 24, when a hillside near Mariposa Point began to slip and encroach on the track’s right-of-way. A pedestrian bridge owned by the city of San Clemente was also damaged in the slide, scattering debris onto the tracks below.

Since that landslide, the partner agencies that utilize the tracks have worked to build a large wall that would protect the right-of-way from the unstable earth above.

Rail service still suspended as crews continue removing landslide debris from tracks in O.C.
Rail service still suspended as crews continue removing landslide debris from tracks in O.C.

Thirty-three steel beams have been put in place for the foundation of the wall and, after Amtrak conducted its own risk analysis, the partner agencies agreed to allow the Pacific Surfliner limited service between San Diego through San Clemente.

North and southbound trains will be reinstated in the mornings and evenings. Morning trains will pass through the corridor between 7 and 8 a.m., while the evening trains will pass through the area between 6 and 7 p.m.

Midday service remains suspended to allow for continued construction work.

“While the resumption of this morning and evening service will reduce the daily work window for construction, the team still anticipates being able to complete the catchment wall later this month,” officials said in a news release. “Once the wall construction is complete, full passenger service is expected to resume.”

Aerial view shows the slumping hillside where a pedestrian bridge came loose in San Clemente, sending debris onto the train tracks below on Jan. 24, 2024. (Orange County Transit Authority via Katrina Foley)
Aerial view shows the slumping hillside where a pedestrian bridge came loose in San Clemente, sending debris onto the train tracks below on Jan. 24, 2024. (Orange County Transit Authority via Katrina Foley)

At this time, Metrolink will not resume service through the area. Metrolink is continuing to operate weekday service as far south as the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station. The weekend Orange County Line and Inland Empire-Orange County Line only goes as far south as San Juan Capistrano.

Metrolink and Amtrak riders are directed to check the latest updates on each system’s respective websites.

Construction is being led by OCTA and Metrolink and involves the use of heavy machinery, debris removal and the removal of two large spans of the pedestrian bridge which weighed nearly 50,000 pounds combined. Drainage work, excavation and the installation of wooden panels is expected to take place this week, despite forecasted rain.

OCTA said the eroding bluffs, which are both located on private property or owned by local municipalities, have caused track closures several times over the last three years. Officials say the tracks were mostly undisturbed for the 125 years prior.

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