SANDAG Board to Explore Viability of Del Mar Track Train Station

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published March 14, 2008 at 1:19 PM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The San Diego Association of Governments Executive Board has voted to study what it would take to build a train station next to the Del Mar race track, like the one Bing Crosby had built in the 1930s.

The San Diego Association of Governments Executive Board has voted to study what it would take to build a train station next to the Del Mar race track, like the one Bing Crosby had built in the 1930s. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Dreams of rebuilding a platform for people going to the Del Mar Races are gaining traction.

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The old Del Mar station was dismantled in the 1960s.

Jerome Stocks of SANDAG says it makes a sense to build a platform next to the Fair Grounds, since the Coaster and Amtrak run right by.

He says the study will take 18 months, and then it will be a question of getting federal and state funding.

Stocks : We’re talking about adding a rail platform that will serve thousands and thousands of people and really reduce the traffic counts for special events. It sparks the imagination, and I think it’ll get some extra attention as a result of that.

The study will look at costs, plus the environmental impact of the platform. It’s close to wetlands but it would also cut air pollution by cutting traffic down the coast.

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Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.