Metrolink and Amtrak passenger rail service through the San Clemente area resumed Monday after a nearly two-month closure due to a rockslide that fell onto the tracks.
Work is complete on a a 200-foot-long retaining wall designed to protect the tracks from more falling rocks, dirt and debris after a series of winter storms soaked hillsides in Southern California. A landslide on private property Jan. 24 above the tracks sent rocks and debris onto the Mariposa Trail Pedestrian Bridge and rail line.
Freight trains began using the line in recent weeks and some limited passenger service resumed on Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains as repair work continued. Full service for both Metrolink and Amtrak resumed Monday morning.
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"In the past week, the Metrolink and OCTA construction team and Metrolink’s track department integrated a more comprehensive drainage system with the wall to complement completed grading to the hillside and trenching along the right of way," Metrolink said in a March 19 statement.
The tracks in the San Clemente area also were closed last year due to slides.
