The Mid-Coast Trolley, which will extend service from Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego to the University City community, reached the halfway point in late March and was celebrated with a breakfast served to the project's construction crews.
“This is a major milestone for a major project,” San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Board Chair and Mayor of Poway Steve Vaus said. “Not only is this project large in scale, but its impact on the San Diego region is bound to be monumental. This is the largest public transit project in our region’s history. It’s costing $2.1 billion. You – the women and men building walls, laying rails and pouring concrete – are the ones making this possible.”
At its construction halfway point, the Mid-Coast Trolley project remains on schedule and on budget. Once complete, workers are projected to have poured four million cubic feet of concrete, installed 27 million pounds of rebar and laid 83 miles of railroad ties.
The Mid-Coast Trolley project will extend Blue Line Trolley service from Old Town north to the University City community, serving major activity centers such as Mission Bay Park, the VA Medical Center, UC San Diego and University Town Center. Nine new stations will be constructed. Major construction work began in 2016, with service anticipated to begin in late 2021.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
