Coasting on the Commute

Jim Stiven looks forward to his ride home — no problem getting out of downtown, no stop-and-go traffic along the way, no crawl through “The Merge” at I-5 and 805 south of DelMar. When he leaves the Edward J. Schwartz Building at Front and Broadway in the late afternoon, the U.S. magistrate judge walks a few blocks west to Santa Fe Depot and boards the COASTER, a blue and white train that’s run by the North County Transit District (NCTD). It takes les than an hour to make the 41 mile trip from downtown San Diego to Oceanside with stops in Old Town.