The Orange County Transportation Authority is advancing its Coastal Rail Resiliency Study (CRRS), a planning effort focused on safeguarding the LOSSAN rail corridor along the south Orange County coast.
The OCTA Board of Directors earlier this month advanced the study, which aims to identify and evaluate strategies that would protect the 11 km (7 miles) coastal rail segment between Dana Point and the San Diego County line from erosion, bluff instability, and the effects of ocean waves nearing the rail line.
The CRRS builds on OCTA’s ongoing work to ensure the safety and reliability of passenger and freight rail service while protecting coastal access and the environment. The study is part of a broader, multi-agency effort to address both immediate and long-term challenges to one of the nation’s most important rail corridors.
“After years of reacting to sea encroaching and bluff destabilisation along our rail corridor, we begin studying viable, proactive solutions for the future. While the state undertakes the long-term study to potentially relocate the LOSSAN rail corridor, OCTA continues advancing our mid-term stabilisation efforts,” said OCTA Director Katrina Foley, also the County’s Fifth District Supervisor.
In 2024, the California State Transportation Agency allocated USD 189 million to enhance the resilience and capacity of the LOSSAN Rail Corridor, ensuring it can better accommodate both passenger and freight operations. All measures to be carried out under this funding should be completed in 2029.
The investment targets four key project zones, focusing on stabilising the coastline through rock reinforcement, replenishing beach sand to protect eroding shorelines, and restoring and maintaining public trails affected by rail infrastructure works.
This funding forms part of California’s long-term strategy to safeguard critical coastal transport routes against climate-related risks and to promote sustainable mobility along one of the state’s busiest rail corridors.
Along the corridor, there are capacity and reliability constraints as large sections remain single-tracked limiting the performance and capacity of the rail traffic. In addition, the San Diego section runs very close to coastal bluffs subject to erosion, landslides and seismic risk, which threatens the corridor’s stability and reliability.
The entire project covers double-tracking for which the 96.5 km San Diego section would be fully double-track line by 2035. Works also include rail realignment and infrastructure renewal especially in fragile coastal areas as well as measures to improve rail traffic.
The 565 km LOSSAN rail corridor runs in Southern California, linking San Luis Obispo in the north, through Los Angeles, down to San Diego. The corridor is vital for passenger mobility, connecting major urban and regional centres along the California coast. For example, the Pacific Surfliner service uses this corridor and saw a 20 % ridership increase in 2024.
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