San Ysidro Mobility Hub

Rendering courtesy of SANDAG

San Ysidro Transit Center already serves over a dozen thousand daily passengers and commuters, but the current layout of the station leads to congestion of Trolleys, buses, and people. As the transit station servicing the busiest land border crossing outside of Asia, San Ysidro Transit Center is finally planned to be upgraded to properly handle its massive traffic volumes, and transform into a true mobility hub.

Short term plans are plentiful: a new trolley track, new bus stops and routes, bus lanes, extra curb space, and a dedicated bikeway.

The Trolley’s Blue Line terminates here, but with its frequency (every 7.5 minutes) and volume, having a typical 2 track terminus can actually lead to delays and backups. As a result, a 3rd track is being planned to ensure both better reliability, but also better frequency.

Additionally, East San Ysidro Boulevard is getting a bus lane, which should help improve the speed and reliability of routes 906 and 907.

In terms of biking, the Bayshore Bikeway will extend all the way to the border, providing convenient biking paths to downtown San Diego and Coronado.

Longer term plans are less concrete, but far more ambitious. They include a crossborder Trolley, the Purple Line, and an extension of LOSSAN (Coaster/Amtrak). It additionally includes better signage and supporting technology along with better amenities in and around the station.

A crossborder trolley would require completely rebuilding the trolley station to be elevated, which is already being planned and studied regardless—but regardless of the future extension coming to fruition, said grade separation would absolutely improve the efficiency of operations.

A Purple Line station here is of course contingent on the Purple Line coming to fruition. Said station and line would very significantly improve mobility between the border and inland communities, as well as serve as a very high speed trunk that allows for truly time-competitive transit trips.

In a similar vein, an extension of the LOSSAN railway to the border would facilitate both Coaster and Amtrak services to run to the border. As it would very likely utilize roughly the same corridor as the Blue Line with much wider station spaces, it could end up being akin to a Blue Line Express. This would also allow for a very high speed transit trunk that makes transit a much more viable option for everyone.

Currently all these plans are just that: plans. However, as funding becomes available and plans become finalized, there seems to be major momentum from SANDAG to prioritize going through with improvements to this transit hub.