The train has been delayed.
The plan to launch Metrolink service from Ventura County to Santa Barbara and Goleta has been delayed until January at the earliest.
Officials hoped to launch it this year, possibly in October, but a series of changes amid last-minute negotiations and other bureaucracy have slowed the train down.
SBCAG is working with the Ventura County Transportation Commission, the Los Angeles – San Diego – San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor (LOSSAN) and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which operates Metrolink, to offer a morning Metrolink train northbound and an afternoon return trip southbound on the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner.
Such a plan has been decades in the making and was intended to encourage motorists who drive cars to ditch their rides and take a train, easing congestion on Highway 101. Parallel to the train effort, agencies have worked for a decade to widen Highway 101 from Ventura to Santa Barbara, a project that is nearing completion.
Staff from the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments took an update to the SBCAG board of directors on Thursday. Most of them didn’t comment on the delay, nor did any ask Jason Jewell, manager of LOSSAN, who called into the meeting online, any questions about the delay.
Aaron Bonfilio, director of multimodal programs for SBCAG, explained the reasons for the delay. He said Metrolink will now be a subcontractor of LOSSAN, negotiations are still ongoing over insurance, and Union Pacific, which owns the tracks the trains ride on, still needs to review the LOSSAN proposal.
“That added a little bit of time to reorganize some of the agreement planning that had been ongoing the past couple of years,” Bonfilio said.
Union Pacific must approve the agreement with LOSSAN.
Another reason for the delay is that Union Pacific is in the process of an $85 billion merger with freight provider Norfolk Southern Railway.
“That has absorbed a bit of their legal activity,” Bonfilio said.
Buellton Mayor and SBCAG member David Silva asked the SBCAG staff about the plans for getting people to work after they are dropped off at train stations in Goleta or Santa Barbara.
“It’s going to be a variety of bus trips, carpools or vanpools leaving from the station, and certainly walking and biking,” Bonfilio said.
The new train is expected to arrive northbound in Santa Barbara at 7:51 a.m. and Goleta about 8:03 a.m. The last southbound train would leave Goleta about 4:25 p.m. and Santa Barbara about 4:40 p.m.
Tickets would be sold through the Amtrak system. A 10-trip ticket book would cost $50. A monthly unlimited pass would cost $150. Single ticket prices would be based on distance. SBCAG is subsidizing part of the cost. Bonfilio said the rates could go up after a year, depending on ridership and demand.
The startup costs are about $450,000 with SBCAG and VCTC splitting the amount. Bonfilio expects about 200 people to ride daily.
The effort to bring Metrolink to the South Coast dates back more than 15 years when transportation leaders talked of adding a lane to Highway 101 and bringing a train to the South Coast. The Highway 101 commuter lane between Ventura and Santa Barbara counties is nearly complete, and the train is also almost here.
Santa Barbara and Goleta are economic hubs for technology and government sectors, but there is a substantial lack of affordable and middle-income housing, which has led to people living in less expensive areas and commuting into the South Coast.
Highway 101 in the morning and afternoon through Montecito, Carpinteria and Summerland, Santa Barbara and Goleta is often heavily congested, so a train service could reduce traffic during those times.