Investors gather support for new 'Tijuana trolley'

San Diego Business Journal, June 4, 1990 by Anne Middleton

Investors gather support for new `Tijuana Trolley'

Mexican investors, eager to pick up where the San Diego Trolley leaves off, claim to have preliminary approval from three federal agencies to launch a bus service called "Tijuana Trolley."

If the Tijuana Trolley receives the final OK from Mexican federal and state officials, the city of Tijuana and U.S. border agencies, it will use a fleet of red buses to transport people from the Mexican side of the border to various spots in Tijuana.

To get the buses rolling, Tijuana Trolley must strike a deal with the United States to open a new pedestrian entry just south of the San Diego Trolley stop at the San Ysidro border crossing, said Sergio Carrera, president of Tijuana Trolley Transport.

Pedestrians would exit the San Diego Trolley, walk southeast about 200 yards to a new pedestrian gate, cross into Mexico and board buses that would take them to Tijuana shopping and business centers, hotels and tourist attractions, Carrera said.

The bus lines would operate the same hours as the San Diego Trolley's south line, which runs from 4:46 a.m. to 1:43 a.m. Taxis also would be located at the new Tijuana Trolley terminal.

Organizers tried to launch a similar plan a few years ago, but met opposition from taxi cab drivers and some Avenida Revolucion merchants, who feared the bus service wouldn't adequately serve them, said Al Reese, vice president of public affairs at the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau. Former Baja Gov. Xicotencatl Leyva Mortera backed the opponents, and the Tijuana Trolley plan died, he added.

Carrera, a Tijuana Trolley organizer since its origin, was reluctant to discuss the failed first effort. He did say, however, that the taxi situation was "a touchy one" and that taxis would play a role in the new plan.

"All the systems are go," Carrera said. "The last time we were stopped, and we didn't even talk about it."

The Tijuana Trolley, which would be launched with an initial investment of about $3 million, is targeting early 1991 as a startup date, said Carrera, one of five Mexican investors involved in the project.

Tijuana Trolley investors claim they have obtained preliminary approval from Mexico's federal agencies for tourism, transportation and customs. A May 30 letter to Carrera from Mexico Secretary of Tourism Pedro Joaquin Coldwell described the project as one with national tourist interest. Coldwell further stated he would help coordinate all other federal and municipal agencies that would be involved in the permit process.

Baja California Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel also supports the Tijuana Trolley.

"The governor is very sympathetic about this project," said Benjamin Novelo, Ruffo's adviser on foreign affairs. "The Tijuana Trolley would make things more easy for tourists to visit our country and for Mexicans to cross over into the United States. Baja California supports anything that would increase the visit of tourists to our country."

At Ruffo's request, Mexican officials are exploring the feasibility of constructing light rail tracks someday, said Langley Powell, president of San Diego Trolley Inc. Tijuana Trolley organizers decided to go the bus route rather than light rail because it's less costly, won't take as long and won't disrupt an already congested border area, Carrera said.

"We need easy solutions," Carrera said. "That's the problem we have in Tijuana. When people go and have to wait three hours (in line), they don't want to come back."

The Tijuana Trolley is one of two transportation projects in the pipeline, said Jim Mills, chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, which built the San Diego Trolley system. A second plan would bring San Diego Trolley riders from San Ysidro to various Tijuana locations via regular bus service. Organizers of the proposed San Ysidro/Tijuana bus project were unavailable for comment at presstime last week.

"I suspect that this (San Diego Trolley) is going to generate so much traffic that there's going to be plenty of people for both of them (proposed projects)," Mills said. "I think they will both be up to their ears with people. . . . The people involved in both of these projects are very responsible and have the resources to do what they're talking about."

Right now San Diego Trolley riders have neither public service buses nor pedestrian gates nearby when they reach in international border. They must traverse a lengthy overpass to reach entry turnstiles located west of the border crossing.

San Diego Trolley executives welcome projects that would extend their link to Mexico. But they are concerned that support services keep pace with the flow of San Diego Trolley riders, which number about 33,000 a day on the line that ends in San Ysidro, said San Diego Trolley's Powell. Trolley cars arrive at the border every 15 minutes; a maximum load carries about 620 passengers.

The San Ysidro border crossing is the busiest in the world, said Bobbie Cassidy, spokesperson with the local U.S. Customs service office. In the year that ended Sept. 30, 1989, more than 50.6 million persons, including about 11 million pedestrians, crossed there, she said.