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.
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.