History
San Diego Northern Railway (SDNR) purchased the tracks used by COASTER from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in 1994. NCTD created the subsidiary San Diego Northern Railway Corporation in 1994 and dissolved it in 2002. Revenue COASTER service began February 27, 1995. Funding for right-of-way acquisition and construction costs came from TransNet, a 1987 measure that imposed a 0.5% sales tax on San Diego County residents for transportation projects. NCTD originally contracted Amtrak to provide personnel for COASTER trains. On July 1, 2006, TransitAmerica took over the day-to-day operation of the commuter train, based on a five-year, $45 million contract with SDNR. TransitAmerica is a subsidiary of Missouri-based Herzog Transit Services.
The COASTER carried 700,000 passengers during its first year of operation. By 2004, it was carrying 1.4 million passengers annually. Approximately 40% of weekday commuters detrain at Sorrento Valley. NCTD owns 62 mi (100 km) of mainline track, including the 41.1 mi (66.1 km) on which the COASTER travels.
NCTD maintains two rail yards. One is shared with the San Diego Trolley at 12th and Imperial in Centre City San Diego. It is used to store train-sets during the midday. The other, located north of Oceanside at Stuart Mesa on Camp Pendleton, is shared with Metrolink. This is where the main maintenance facility is located.
Consumption of alcoholic beverages is allowed on board the COASTER during certain hours for riders who are of the legal drinking age.
Read more about this topic: Coaster (San Diego)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“... in a history of spiritual rupture, a social compact built on fantasy and collective secrets, poetry becomes more necessary than ever: it keeps the underground aquifers flowing; it is the liquid voice that can wear through stone.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)