Stretching over highways and busy intersections, squeezing into existing rights-of-way with active rail lines, touching a major college campus and a veteran’s hospital, the $2.1-billion Mid-Coast Trolley extension is visible throughout San Diego. Not only will it play a key role in the mobility vision of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), it is influencing other development in the region as well.
The 11-mile extension, called the Blue Line, begins just north of the Old Town Transit Center and travels in an existing railroad right-of-way and alongside Interstate 5 to Gilman Drive. It crosses to the west side of I-5 just south of Nobel Drive and continues on to serve the heart of the University of California San Diego campus. It then crosses back to the east side of I-5 near Voigt Drive to serve the UCSD east campus and Scripps Memorial Hospital, transitions into the median of Genesee Avenue and continues down Genesee to the UTC Transit Center.