North county Transit District

Transit district adds NASA safety program

The North County Transit District (NCTD) is teaming up with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to work with Bombardier Transportation USA Inc. and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) to bring added safety through the Confidential Close Call Reporting System (C3RS) program. The C3RS is designed to improve railroad safety by…


‘Tap and go’ on tap for transit fare collections

The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System plans to spend $34 million for a new “tap-and-go” fare collection system that will replace one that some riders find inconvenient and that the agency says is outdated. MTS will pay for the new fare system with federal money and funds from a quarter-cent state sales tax that’s dedicated to transit projects. A spokeswoman for the North County Transit…


North County mixed bag: Buses, rents, beer

Buses to nowhere North County Transit District is eliminating about 90 bus stops from the more than 1,800 stops on 30 routes in its Breeze service area in April. Most of the bus stops to be discontinued have fewer than five daily riders, fail to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and have other stops within walking distance, said Kimberly Hayford, the transit district’s…


Only track crews could get anywhere by rail

Coaster and Amtrak riders this weekend found they could ride all they wanted, but it best had been by plane or automobile, not train. That is, if they wanted to get there. Rail service along the 351-mile Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo, or LOSSAN, rail corridor, was suspended in both directions on Saturday through 5 a.m. Monday from Oceanside to San Diego for track and…


Local bus drivers say show us the money

Bus drivers and mechanics for San Diego’s North County Transit District allege they are owed thousands of dollars in accrued vacation, sick and personal time from First Transit, a national company that operated NCTD’s bus service for the past seven years under a $178 million contract. It’s unclear how many people are affected and how much money is at stake, though interviews with drivers and…


NCTD: Don’t tread on Sprinter tracks

The luckiest man in San Marcos spooked North County Transit District officials so much they tightened pedestrian trespassing enforcement this week. Meanwhile, the man who got struck by a Sprinter train traveling at 40 mph at the Palomar College Station is still at large after casually dusting himself off and walking eastbound on the NCTD tracks, presumably towards home.  “There’s an increasing problem we are…


North County Transit District comes clean about leadership after costly court battle

The North County Transit District has turned over a leadership assessment summary after more than a year of legal back-and-forth between inewsource and the public agency, at a cost to both organizations of more than a quarter-million dollars in combined legal fees. A San Diego public transportation agency spent more than $100,000 to fight a public records act request, eventually producing a partial summary of a leadership…