A Possible Purple Line becomes a transit hot potato | Joshua Emerson Smith

A long-envisioned Purple Line trolley remains in limbo as transit officials work through the details over how and whether to build the rail connection between downtown Chula Vista and the city of San Diego’s Kearny Mesa neighborhood. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System now appears to be leaning away from paying for the line as part of a roughly $24 billion tax measure slated to go before voters later this year. However, the San Diego Association of Governments has signaled an eagerness to incorporate the route’s alignment into plans for a regional high-speed rail system. For months, control over the future of the region’s rail system has stoked tension between MTS and SANDAG, the region’s primary transportation and planning agency.