Passenger rail service to San Diego remained unavailable Friday after a landslide damaged the historic Casa Romantica Cultural Center in San Clemente and sent dirt and debris cascading down a hillside toward coastal railroad tracks.
Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner suspended service between Irvine and San Diego due to the landslide, although Amtrak officials said some limited service would be available as far as San Juan Capistrano.
Metrolink service, which uses the same tracks, was halted Thursday afternoon and remained unavailable Friday south of the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station. That left no service available to San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente or Oceanside.
The North County Transit District‘s Coaster trains continued to operate between Oceanside and San Diego.
The landslide occurred around 1 p.m. Thursday, roughly two weeks after officials at Casa Romantica first reported ground movement that caused some cracks on the property’s concrete terrace facing the ocean.
While slight movement had been continuing over the past two weeks, the ground collapsed by about 10 feet on Thursday afternoon, damaging the Casa Romatica terrace, part of which tumbled down the hillside.
The San Clemente City Council earlier this week approved a $75,000 contract with a geologic contractor to study the ground movement and develop a plan for shoring up the hillside. The contractor was working at the site this week when the slide occurred.
Casa Romantica was red-tagged, or deemed unsuitable to occupation, along with some condominium units in a residential building farther down the hillside. It was unclear exactly how many residents were displaced.
The slide occurred about two miles north of where the Orange County Transportation Authority is finishing up construction to shore up a hillslide slope near the Cyprus Shore Homeowners Association in San Clemente, officials said.
City News Service contributed to this article.
