Rail service was suspended Monday for the second time this year along a section of Southern California coast where a crumbling hillside is dropping debris onto seaside tracks.
Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, regional Metrolink commuter trains and freight lines were halted indefinitely in the Orange County city of San Clemente.
Metrolink spokesperson Scott Johnson said rocks and dirt were falling onto the tracks between San Diego and Los Angeles. He said there was no estimate for when service would be resumed.
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Passengers board a Pacific Surfliner train at Union Station in Los Angeles on Nov. 26, 2014. Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, regional Metrolink commuter trains, and freight lines have been halted after rocks and dirt fell onto the tracks between San Diego and Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
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Amtrak is providing bus service to cover the route. Metrolink will provide buses or Uber vouchers for riders on Monday. Starting Tuesday, there will be no Metrolink service available south of the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo station during the suspension, Johnson said.
The closure comes less than two weeks after the same stretch of track was reopened following completion of emergency work to stabilize a hillside that slid on April 27. That landslide damaged a cultural center and gardens on a hilltop above the tracks.
Service was also suspended last September in the same area. The tracks were shifting due to storm surge and sand erosion on the ocean side and a gradually sliding hillside on the other, the Orange County Transportation Authority said at the time.
