Overview | |||
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Current operator | San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad, Pacific Southwest Railway Museum | ||
Parent company |
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Headquarters | James R. Mills Building 1255 Imperial Avenue San Diego, California | ||
Reporting mark | SDAE | ||
Locale | California and Mexico | ||
Dates of operation | 1932–present | ||
Predecessor | San Diego and Arizona Railway | ||
Technical | |||
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge | ||
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The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company( reporting mark SDAE) is a short-line American railroad founded in 1932 as the successor to the San Diego and Arizona Railway (SD&A), which was founded in 1906 by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels. Dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved, the line was established in part to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific Railroad lines in El Centro, California. Since 1979, the company has been owned by the San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board and its successor, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System.
At its peak, the SD&A's operated a 146.4-mile (235.6 km) stretching from San Diego to El Centro. Today, the SD&AE operates approximately 108 miles (174 km) of the original SD&A system, across four segments: [1]
The San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway Company traces its origins back to December 14, 1906, when entrepreneur John D. Spreckels announced he would form the San Diego and Arizona (SD&A) Railway Company and build a railroad to provide San Diego with a direct rail link to the east by connecting with the Southern Pacific (SP) lines in El Centro, California. Spreckels had an agreement with SP to silently fund the project. Groundbreaking for the line took place on September 7, 1907. [1] [3] [4]
The SD&A reached an agreement with the Mexican Government in 1909 to route the tracks over the border. As part of the agreement, the SD&A is ordered to form the Tijuana and Tecate Railway, which will construct and hold a 99-year lease on the 44-mile (70.81 km) Mexican rail segment. [1]
Construction proved extremely challenging. The line was called "The Impossible Railroad" by many engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved. In Mexico, revolutionaries mount several attacks on SD&A construction crews to conscript soldiers, take supplies, and cut telephone wires. On the U.S. side, the federal government seized control of all railroads in 1917 and stopped construction in an effort to conserve resources amid World War I. Construction was later allowed to resume on the grounds that the SD&A would serve military installations. [1]
Construction of the SD&A was completed on November 15, 1919, at a cost of $18 million (equivalent to $316 million in 2023). [3] However, operation of the line would also prove challenging. Rains washed away large amounts of trackage east of San Diego in 1926, 1927 and 1929, leading to financial troubles for the railroad. The most challenging year came in 1932 when floods, landslides, and fires closed three tunnels. Repairs would cost over $600,000(equivalent to $13,399,000 in 2023). Spreckels had died in 1926 and his descendants no longer wanted to deal with the financial troubles of the railroad. So, in 1933, they sold their interests in the railroad to SP. Passenger service on the line ended on January 11, 1951, after years of continued declining patronage. [1] On May 20, 1970, SP relinquished its interest in the Tijuana and Tecate Railway to a Mexican national railway, Ferrocarril Sonora–Baja California.
On September 10, 1976 Hurricane Kathleen destroyed major sections of track and bridges on the line east of San Diego. SP wanted to abandon the railway, a request that was denied by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1978. [5] The San Diego Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB) stepped in and offered to buy the SD&AE for $18.1 million if SP fully repaired the line. The deal closed on August 20, 1979.
The purchase gave MTDB two sections of right-of-way that could be used for mass transit: the SD&AE Main Line from downtown San Diego to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, which would become the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley and the SD&AE La Mesa Branch from downtown San Diego to El Cajon which would become the Orange Line.
As part of the deal, SP retained the section of the Desert Line between Plaster City and El Centro (now the Union Pacific El Centro Subdivision), and all tracks had to remain available for freight service. The board reached a deal with the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad on March 8, 1984, to continue to move railcars from the end of the Santa Fe Railway in downtown San Diego to industrial customers in the San Diego area or to the Mexico–United States border in San Ysidro. However, freight service between San Ysidro and Plaster City has struggled. Additional natural disasters and the bi-national nature of the line have closed the line several times since 1979, and the line has been unused since 2008. [6] [7] In November 2021, the lease was cancelled for the most recent lessor of the line, the Baja California Railroad. [2] The Pacific Southwest Railway Museum operates on a portion of the line in Campo.
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system serving San Diego County, California, United States. The trolley's operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc., is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The trolley operates as a critical component of MTS, with connections to and integrated travel tickets with the local bus systems.
The San Diego and Arizona Railway was a 148-mile (238 km) short line U.S. railroad founded by entrepreneur John D. Spreckels, and dubbed "The Impossible Railroad" by engineers of its day due to the immense logistical challenges involved. It linked San Diego, its western terminus, with El Centro, its eastern terminus, where passengers could connect with Southern Pacific's transcontinental lines, eliminating the need to first travel north via Los Angeles or Riverside.
The San Diego Electric Railway (SDERy) was a mass transit system in San Diego County, California, United States. The system utilized 600 volt direct current streetcars and buses.
The San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad (SD&IV) is a class III railroad operating freight rail service in the San Diego area, providing service to customers in the region and moving railcars between the end of the BNSF Railway in downtown San Diego and the Mexico–United States border in San Ysidro. It was established in October 1984 and is owned and operated by Genesee & Wyoming.
Carrizo Gorge Railway, Inc. was a railroad operator on the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway (SD&AE) from Tijuana, Mexico, to Plaster City, California.
Santa Fe Depot is a union station in San Diego, California, built by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to replace the small Victorian-style structure erected in 1887 for the California Southern Railroad Company. The Spanish Colonial Revival style station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a San Diego Historic Landmark. Its architecture, particularly the signature twin domes, is often echoed in the design of modern buildings in downtown San Diego.
The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System is a public transit service provider for San Diego County, California. The agency operates a transit system that includes the San Diego MTS bus system, San Diego Trolley, and Rapid. MTS also controls the San Diego and Arizona Eastern (SD&AE) freight railway and regulates taxicabs, jitneys, and other private for-hire passenger transportation services.
The Blue Line is a 26.3-mile (42.3 km) light rail line in the San Diego Trolley system, operated by San Diego Trolley, Inc., an operating division of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). With an end-to-end travel time of one hour and twenty-three minutes, it operates between UTC Transit Center and San Ysidro Transit Center, the latter of which is at the Mexico–United States border directly adjacent to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, facilitating easy connections across the border. The line serves La Jolla, downtown San Diego, National City, Chula Vista, and San Ysidro and is the system's longest line.
San Ysidro Transit Center is a San Diego Trolley station in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California. The station is the southern terminus of the Blue Line and is located on a short rail spur off the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway main line which hosts the Blue Line to downtown San Diego.
Barrio Logan station is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley located in the Logan Heights neighborhood of San Diego. The station's name is the Spanish translation of "Logan neighborhood" and the station primarily serves the corresponding Hispanic neighborhood. The stop is located near Chicano Park, famous for its artwork and legacy of protests for minority rights.
Pacific Fleet station is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley near Naval Base San Diego in San Diego, California. The stop provides civilian access to the naval base facility.
8th Street station is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley located in National City, California. Surrounded by an industrial area, the primary focus of this station is to serve as a commuter lot, as it is easily accessible from Interstate 5.
24th Street station is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley in National City, California. The stop serves both as a commuter center with a park and ride lot and to provide access to the dense nearby retail area.
Palomar Street Transit Center is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley located in the city of Chula Vista, California. The stop serves a variety of purposes, holding the function of commuter center with a park and ride lot and providing access to the nearby commercial, industrial, and residential areas, as well as Southwestern Community College.
Beyer Boulevard station is a station on the Blue Line of the San Diego Trolley located in San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego. The stop serves as a park and ride commuter center in addition to providing access to the surrounding residential areas.
The Pacific Imperial Railroad was a company in possession of the SD&AE Desert Line right of way in Southern California, colloquially referred to as the Desert Line. The Desert Line starts at the border crossing at Division, near Campo at Milepost 59.94 in eastern San Diego County, California, where it connects with the Baja California Railroad in Mexico, and stretches 70.1 miles through the Jacumba Mountains to El Centro, California, where it connects to Union Pacific Railroad at Milepost 129.61. The significance of the Desert Line is that it provides an alternative rail route to and from the east for servicing the distribution, transportation, and supply chain needs of the Cali-Baja region.
Baja California Railroad, Inc. (BJRR) is a class III railroad operating in the northwest of Baja California, interchanging with San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad in San Ysidro, California. After rehabilitation efforts are completed on the Desert Line portion of the railroad, an interchange is also planned with the Union Pacific Railroad in Plaster City, California.
Goat Canyon Trestle is a wooden trestle in San Diego County, California. At a length of 597–750 feet (182–229 m), it is the world's largest all-wood trestle. Goat Canyon Trestle was built in 1933 as part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, after one of the many tunnels through the Carrizo Gorge collapsed. The railway had been called the "impossible railroad" upon its 1919 completion. It ran through Baja California and eastern San Diego County before ending in Imperial Valley. The trestle was made of wood, rather than metal, due to temperature fluctuations in the Carrizo Gorge. By 2008, most rail traffic stopped using the trestle.
The James R. Mills Building is a 120-foot (37 m) mid-rise governmental office tower in San Diego, California, United States. The building is alternatively known as the MTS Tower, as it is the headquarters of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The building also houses various offices for the County of San Diego. The building was completed in 1989 and is located directly above 12th & Imperial Transit Center, a major transfer point in the San Diego Trolley system, with trains passing through the base of the building.