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Yesterday, the North County Transit District (NCTD), through its contract with Herzog Transit Service Inc. (HTSI), assumed dispatching responsibility for the 60-mile coastal rail line between Santa Fe Depot in San Diego County and Orange County, Calif.

NCTD awarded a contract to HTSI in January 2011 for the installation of a new train control management system, and to provide dispatch services for 10 years on the coastal rail line and the inland Sprinter light-rail line that runs from Oceanside to Escondido. HTSI has implemented the new train control system and assumed responsibility of dispatching the inland light-rail line from Veolia in July 2011. More recently, the company completed testing and federal and state audits “that have validated their readiness to assume dispatch responsibilities for both rail lines,” NTCD officials said in a prepared statement.

NCTD owns the inland rail line and jointly owns the coastal rail line with the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). Through its joint ownership agreement with MTS, NCTD is responsible for the daily operations of the entire coastal rail line.