WASHED AWAY.

There's a stretch of the Dawlish Warren sea wall modelled at Cold Spring Shops headquarters.  If that stretch ever washes out, there are worse problems I'll be dealing with.

The real one does wash out, whenever there are severe storms on the Channel, and for years, there have been hopes of building a new railway somewhere inland.

A beach-front rail line does offer sightseeing, at least on one side of the train, but the risk of building beach-front property is the risk of the tracks washing out, which has blown a hole in Amtrak service on one of the busier corridor services west of Interstate 95. "Full passenger service to San Diego not expected until April."  Seriously?  As if the all-weather mode hasn't done enough already to make the bitter jokes about "Amtrak Joe" keep coming.

Regular operation of Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliners, as well as Metrolink service to Oceanside, Calif., was suspended at the end of September [see “Pacific Surfliner, Metrolink halt operations …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 30, 2022]. Weekend service through the area resumed Feb. 4 after instruments showed the initial stabilization work, which involves drilling ground anchors into the bedrock beneath the hillside, had stopped the slow-moving landside. Service remains suspended on weekdays to allow the stabilization work to continue.

The new cost estimate, presented at a Monday meeting of the Orange County Transportation Authority board, does not include costs still being negotiated with landowners for the right-of-way needed for the stabilization devices, or permitting and potential mitigation that may be required by the California Coastal Commission.

The interruption through San Clemente was initially estimated to last 60 days.

Shades of fifteen days to slow the spread?

California: from setting an example for the rest of the country to being an example of what's in store for the rest of the country.