Metrolink, Amtrak resume full service through Orange County after landslide

Metrolink and Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains resumed service through Orange County on Saturday after rail traffic was partially suspended due to a landside in San Clemente last month.

Crews completed emergency construction to stabilize the hillside below the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens and cleared debris from the tracks, allowing Metrolink trains to resume travel to and from Oceanside on the Orange County and Inland Empire-Orange County lines, according to a service advisory. Metrolink trains were operating on a Saturday schedule due to the Memorial Day holiday and were set to resume regular weekday service Tuesday.

The construction also enabled daily Pacific Surfliner trains to resume service, with trains to and from San Diego no longer requiring a bus connection between Irvine and Oceanside.

The April 27 landslide took place two miles north of another landslide that prompted the Orange County Transportation Authority to suspend passenger trains for almost six months and spend more than $13.7 million to stabilize a different slope that had crumbled. Passenger rail service through the area was fully restored for less than two weeks before the most recent landslide caused it to be suspended again.

Officials say the stretch of coast is caught precariously between an “ancient landslide” and severe sand loss from erosion, development and climate change.

Times staff writer Grace Toohey and San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Phil Diehl contributed to this report