Well, the NCTD (North County Transit District – San Diego / North County) Sprinter launched service today. For those of you not aware, this is the new light rail train running from Escondido to Oceanside in San Diego, California’s North County region. It’s a boondoggle plain and simple and is a terrible waste of tax payer dollars. It only has a “…27% fare box recovery system wide…” (that means it’s subsidized at 73%! – even though they say “that’s pretty average for a transit system”. sheesh) As anticipated, it’s absolutely useless to me, the working commuter looking to take advantage of light rail to get to and from work. Here’s a little insight as to why. For me, time is most important, then cost. Since the cost of a coaster pass after work subsidies, discounts, and pre-tax money is ~equal to the cost of gas/maint on my car, it really just boils down to time for me.
Bottom line, the Sprinter->Coaster route costs me $1 more/month, I’d lose my freedom while I’m at work to go out to lunch or whatever, and my commute would double from an average of 2 hrs by car to an average of 4 hrs by rail. For that, I get about 60 minutes of time on the train to read or whatever each way and A LOT less time with my 3 young boys due to the extra 2 hours of commute time every day. The project is tens of millions over budget, years late, and you guessed it, way more than $1 short.
I’ve built a spreadsheet of what my schedule would look like (as of 3/9/08) which you can access by clicking the thumbnail at the bottom of the page and which should apply to anyone looking for a similar commute from San Marcos to Sorrento Valley…but first, a few notes:
- The Coaster Connection (Route 972), even though it stops right outside my office, has limited hours… so for the two options that require me to walk, I’ve calculated 2.3 miles (via Google Maps) and a 20 min mile (note likely for me – but again, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt) for a total of 46 minutes to walk to/from the station if I miss the shuttle.
- It takes me 10 minutes to get from my house in North San Marcos (near Richland Elementary) to the Civic Center Sprinter Station, park my car, and get to the platform (if I really rush!)
- Make sure you note the wonderful layovers I have sitting in the Oceanside Transit Station
- A Monthly Coaster Pass – to best price option for my rail commute is a 3 zone monthly Coaster Pass at $142/month. I pay $27 post-tax, my employer (rated the best in San Diego by Fortune Magazine for such reasons as mass transit subsidies) pays $28.75. I pay the remaining $86.25 with pretax dollars (which, since my net tax is ~20%, saves me another $17.25.) So my net cost on a monthly rail pass that works for my commute is $96.
- My car – I drive a Toyota Prius. I average 48 miles to the gallon (proof here). It’s 25.3 miles one way from my home in San Marcos to work in Sorrento Valley. Without traffic, it’s 36 mins door to door. With traffic, it averages 60 minutes but often varies to 50 minutes with light traffic or 70 minutes with heavy traffic. Gas to/from work costs me $75/month at $3.50/gal. Maintenance (on a prepaid maintenance package) runs $20/month with the mileage I drive. Total, $95 month ($1 less than the coaster pass)
- Why a Prius? – I bought it the day they approved the carpool sticker legislation. Truth be told, I rarely have use for the stickers because the Sandag bureaucrats haven’t seen fit to put carpool lanes along my commute route (by 2012, supposedly…we’ll see if the stickers are still valid by then…guessing so with all the hybrid-loving legislators in Sacramento!) I’m fed up enough as it is with the lack of public-use lanes being built..but for the carpool lanes I’m supposedly paying for not being in either? come on…
All in all, as stated, the train does nothing for me except annoy me with its loud horn (they said it wouldn’t be loud – oops, it is – I’m hearing it as I write this late on Sunday night from the San Marcos/Richland area), slow service (takes ~45 minutes on average to travel between Oceanside and San Marcos), and now forces me to take a back road from my house to I-15 to/from work to avoid the traffic snarls on local San Marcos city streets thanks to the Sprinter coming through every 30 minutes (and that’s the only thing accounting for a 5 minute average increase each way in my commute time which I’ve already factored in to my time estimates. Thank goodness I don’t have to cross the tracks like many others do.)
I think it’s truly sad that I, a standard commuter working standard hours don’t have the ability to take a train from near my house to near my work and not have it cost me DOUBLE IN COMMUTE TIME. Arguably, I should be best slated to take advantage of the Sprinter service based on where I live and my commute. North County Transit District – you’ve done an outstanding job completely wasting my tax payer dollars.
If you click on the spreadsheet thumbnail below, you’ll see all of the times and how ridiculous they are.
-Mike
Have you compared these times to similar distances on some of the east coast mass transit trains? I’d be curious to see how they compare.
I think I’d be willing to add a little to my commute to have the ability to sit and read or work on the train, but I could not do it daily as I need my car for errands, changes in plans, sports, etc. I could pull off once a week or so.
Here’s another spreadsheet you should do: How much time and money (and environmental impact) could you save by working from home?
I’d love to comment on the car pool lane stickers for hybrids because I’m pretty sure we’ll disagree on them, but some other time.
Yeah, I’d be willing as well – but not when the commute is at least doubled (with some of the hours I work, it’s even more.) Having traveled a lot of East coast mass transit (thank you VZW!) I find them to always move faster (comparable to the coaster here) and they’re bypassing way more traffic such that it’s literally the only way to travel. I do work from home when I can (hmm, didn’t figure that cost into my monthly transit pass – which would cost more per day of use given the wfh days! lol)
As for car pool lane stickers, yeah, I’ll write something at some point. I think the whole concept is absolutely bureaucratic… nothing but democratic legislators in Sacramento trying to figure out how to improve their commute while ‘helping the environment.’ – It’s a load of BS. But hey, if SanDag is going to suck additional tax revenue from me for carpool lanes (thanks Prop A) I’m certainly going to use them for all they’re worth
Look at it this way – had it not been for the stickers, I’d still be driving my Acura getting 16mpg instead of my Prius getting 3x more…so like it or not, the concept did help me buy a more ecologically friendly vehicle! (ducking)
Having commuted by mass transit from Oceanside to Point Loma for some time now I can tell you right away that San Diego’s mass transit is never going to save you in actual commuting time. The train and bus speeds and schedules just can’t compete with driving yourself, even in heavy traffic.
Owning a Prius, you aren’t a very good example of how much the average person spends on gas per month here (and $3.50 is a pretty low ball estimate for a gallon). Plus you have a prepaid maintenance package which I’ve never even heard of before. Most people have to consider oil changes, routine maintenance, tire wear, etc. Also I think you are lowballing your free time because you are able to read not only on the train but while you are waiting for connections. Basically your entire commute time can be used to read or do whatever except for when you are driving to and from the San Marcos station.
You also have to appreciate the peace of mind that can be gained by not fighting traffic and crazy drivers. You are free to relax and take a nap if you want to. You should also be glad you work in Sorrento Valley because the parade of connection buses that move to and from that station is a luxury. I either ride a bike 8 miles or take the bus which makes the Coaster and Sprinter feel like Disneyland rides.
For you, it clearly doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to use mass transit because you aren’t really saving any money and you’re losing valuable time. For most people, however, there is a lot of money to be saved especially for college students who can avoid parking permits that cost hundreds of dollars a semester.
I do agree that the schedule are abysmal, but with the system constantly in the red, they aren’t able to justify more trains and stops.
I just googled “train commute san diego” and saw your post. You did all the work for me: I am near the Nordahl Sprinter station and work in Sorrento Mesa near the Qualcomm complex.
I drive a small pickup (about 20 mpg) and am buying a 30 mpg car which will save me about 250 gallons a year. I think the only real way to save is to carpool since this literally reduces the miles driven without adding a lot of time to the commute. The downside to carpools is the lack of schedule flexibility. You have to leave at the same time every day.