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San Ysidro: Elevated Cross-Border Trolley?
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San Ysidro: Elevated Cross-Border Trolley?
Voice of San Diego – Sandra Dibble
Imagine stepping into an elevated trolley car in Tijuana — and moments later emerging across the border in the United States. No more hours spent inching forward on foot toward the San Ysidro Port of Entry. No more getting stuck in fume-choked lines of idling cars.The San Diego Association of Governments is supporting a private-sector study that looks at extending San Diego’s Blue Line Trolley over the border into Tijuana. If it sounds far-fetched, proponents point out that their idea is not so different from the Cross-Border Xpress, the airport pedestrian bridge connecting travelers in San Diego to Tijuana’s A.L. Rodriguez International Airport.
In this case, the aim is to cut wait times and reduce vehicle pollution at the San Ysidro Port of Entry — the busiest border crossing in the Western Hemisphere.
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30 Replies
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Oh my, that would be a blessing! Where do I sign up???
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I bet a good percentage of the expat community in Tijuana that commutes across the border every day would jump at this.
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Except for that they are envisioning it’s Tijuana terminal in the Revolución area, not exactly expat friendly. I think they are more focused on tourism.
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As long as the terminal is next to a large parking facility like the one just off Revo – I think it’s on 6th Street. That was it would work for both tourists and commuters.
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Or commuters could just take a Uber to the station. Probably easier and cheaper.
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This could probably work. The border crossing / customs processing center is just a few feet away at San Ysidro and the expansion would not be complicated. Although would US customs employees then have to work in Tijuana at the terminal there?
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US Customs agents often work at foreign locations – think airports. This wouldn’t be much different and they’d have easy access to great tacos.
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Will never happen.
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A lot of people said that about the CBX crossing.
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We’ll see but I wouldn’t bet on it. CBP agents HATE Tijuana and I seriously cannot see any of them actually working within the borders of the city they all call call a s**thole.
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On that we agree. Friends of ours who have a small shop and restaurant in Tijuana say they are paid by the San Diego Chamber of Commerce to discourage visitors heading south. 😆
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I had one agent when crossing back flat out ask me why I even go to Mexico, implying with his facial expression complete and total disdain for Mexico. I looked at him for a minute, stopping myself from what I initially wanted to say and then replied that I was just making sure he had a job and could pay his rent. He stared back at me for a few seconds, chuckled and waved me through. After we were through the border and getting back on the 5 my wife kicked me, insisting that my mouth was going to get us black listed in their system.
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That happened to a friend who answered one of them back with a smartaleck remark. He was sent to secondary inspection every time for a long time before they finally stop hassling him. I believe sometimes they are baiting you into doing it.
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What would be REALLY cool would be if the Tijuana side terminal was also a transportation hub – where you could easily and quickly transition to a taxi, bus, etc.
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An excellent idea. An ABC bus stop would be awesome as that would really connect the SD trolley system all the way down to the southern Baja tip.
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My wife wanted to make a trip to Cabo by bus with a couple of girlfriends but that border to bus terminal stretch scared them off. Your idea would make that doable, let’s hope that someone is listening.
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I remember some talk of this 20 years ago but as I remember, it was the people at the Border Patrol who said no. Maybe now they will see it really is a good idea make it easier for everybody.
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I’m 100% in favor – but not sure about their claim that it would help with pollution as it would mainly be serving the pedestrian traffic. Can’t see where it would. have much affect on those who need to drive back and forth.
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I think that more people would take the trolley to cross and leave their cars parked at home.
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There are tens of thousands of commuters who cross the border in their cars heading north every morning to go to work in the San Diego area. If this cross border trolley option were to become a reality, even with just 10% of them deciding to leave their cars behind for the trolley option would make a noticeable difference in traffic and air quality IMHO.
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And welcome to the forum @gbosey, we’re glad to have you onboard.
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I don’t think they can find enough money to build this – just the US side of the Tijuana terminal alone is going to require some serious spending the way we have to overbuild everything these days to DHS standards.
And welcome to the forum gbosey!
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I think this would be used by a lot of people on both sides of the border if they thought it would reduce their time spent waiting in line to cross. But I also worry that this will be too expensive to build and maybe they won’t get enough to it..
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For sure it is going to take more private than public money to make this a reality.
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Have there been any cost estimates for this proposed extension of the Blue Line?
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Looks like the cross border trolley idea is moving forward
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That is encouraging news, let’s hope it doesn’t take 50 years.
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I don’t think this would make the wait times any shorter than they are now. Just like with the buses that cross each passenger would have to be checked and that takes time. They need more agents doing inspections to make the wait times shorter. Pedwest has been closed now for 2.5 years. Why was it even built if they are not going to use it? It’s funny how CBP has claimed that they don’t have enough agents to staff Pedwest now when it was open for 4 years before covid 19 hit. It seems obvious to me that the DHS just doesn’t want to allow more people to cross which is the real reason behind the increase in wait times.
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The CBP union has been quite vocal against any increased immigration, not sure if over politics or just don’t want to have to deal with the extra work load?
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I will believe they really want to reduce the wait times at the border if on some Sunday I see all the lanes open and all of the inspection booth operating.
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