No More Clickety-Clack : Seamless Rail Laid for Safer Train Ride

The clickety-clack that has mesmerized generations of train travelers is becoming a thing of the past--at least on a 107-mile stretch of track from Fullerton to San Diego.

Workers have started replacing the old track with a new seamless variety that will smooth out and speed up the ride while lessening the likelihood of mishaps, a railway spokesman said.

The $44-million project is being financed primarily by Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, by Amtrak and by the railroads--Amtrak and the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., Santa Fe spokesman Michael Martin said from Los Angeles. The balance of the funding is being provided by the state under its transit capital improvement program.

Enhanced Ride Quality

The improvements are expected to “dramatically” enhance the ride quality and safety of the trains, said Kim Shultz, project manager for the Santa Ana Transportation Department. There have been four derailments on the Santa Fe line in Orange County since March, 1986.

In addition, travel times will decrease because the trains will be able to speed up slightly, Martin said. The new track is also expected to cut noise, noise-related complaints and maintenance costs.

The four-phase project is expected to be completed by the end of 1992, officials said.

The project’s initial phase, in which 12 miles of 40-year-old track from Fullerton through Santa Ana is being revamped, will be completed by the end of September, Martin said.

“The rail there has reached the end of its useful life,” he said, adding that he does not anticipate any dramatic rise in the cost of tickets when the project is completed.

Santa Ana city construction crews are installing rubberized crossing pads where the track intersects Fairhaven Avenue, Santa Clara Avenue, Washington Boulevard, Chestnut Avenue, 4th Street, 17th Street, Lyon Street and Grand Avenue, Shultz said. The pads give cars a smoother ride over railroad crossings.

Earlier this month, Santa Fe track replacement crews started to upgrade the main rail.

Some residents have complained about the crews working through the night, but Martin said it is necessary so as not to interrupt Amtrak’s day service. He said the rail work progresses about one to two miles per night.

In addition to installing continuous welded rail, in which the connection rails are fused instead of abutted, the crews have also been replacing worn railroad ties, sifting and re-ballasting the gravel and cleaning and leveling the rail surface.

The rail rehabilitation project is seen as the first step in upgrading commuter rail service along the Los Angeles to San Diego route, which does not run a concentration of trains during the commuter hours.

This project is part of a plan to curb traffic between south Orange County and Los Angeles; it also includes the Santa Ana Freeway Widening and Improvement Project, said Thomas Fortune, a spokesman for the Orange County Transportation Commission.

Commuter rail service is seen as a long-term solution to the traffic congestion and pollution problems in Southern California because it will reduce the reliance on private automobiles as the primary form of transportation, he said.

Amtrak has posted a 27% increase in ridership on the Los Angeles-San Diego route over the past year, providing not only a jump in revenues but also an indication that expanded rail service would meet with enough paying customers to make the plan profitable, railway officials said.

“It doesn’t take anyone with super insight to see that when you’re sitting on Interstate 5, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, going two miles per hour and an Amtrak train goes by at 90 (m.p.h.) that that’s the way to go,” Martin said.

Since Amtrak took over the Los Angeles-San Diego route in 1971, the number of round-trip commuter trains on the route has gone from three to eight, making it second to the New York-Washington line as the most traveled in the nation, Martin said.

“The demand’s there,” Fortune said. “There’re certainly enough people driving that way.”

A similar rail rehabilitation project has recently been completed in the Miami area of Florida, Greene said.

Fortune estimated that a commuter train system linking south Orange County with downtown Los Angeles would be in place by the end of 1990.