Commuters Abandon Amtrak in Wake of Slide : Railroad: Freight deliveries to San Diego have been halted by track blockage. Officials are uncertain when the line can be reopened.

SAN CLEMENTE —  Amtrak’s commuter ridership dropped sharply Wednesday, and freight couldn’t reach San Diego County for the second straight day as a long section of railroad track here remained buried under tons of dirt from Monday’s massive landslide.

Meanwhile, officials in San Clemente and Dana Point were planning a complicated cleanup effort, worried that removing any material from the slide area could further destabilize the water-logged bluffs where five homes on La Ventana were destroyed.

“The concern right now is all the unknowns,” said Andy Anderson, emergency services coordinator for the city of Dana Point.

“We don’t know much about the stability of the bluff and all the debris on the road that used to be the bluff,” he said. “If you move dirt or debris at the toe of the slide, what kind of effect will that have, not only on the rest of the debris, but on the stability of the bluff?”

Neither Anderson nor San Clemente officials could say how long the cleanup will take--or cost--but it will be days before the debris can be removed from the railroad tracks, despite urgent pleas from railroad officials. Officials estimate that 400 to 500 feet of track are buried under the rubble.

“We are sensitive to the fact that there are people up above losing their homes and belongings, but we do need to get that track open as soon as possible,” said Mike Martin, a spokesman for the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. in San Bernardino, which owns the tracks.

Noting that 20 trains a day normally use the tracks, he said: “This is a main train artery in Southern California. There is no other way to get to San Diego by rail.”

The track blockage has, for the time being, eliminated all rail freight service between San Clemente and San Diego. It came as a blow to feed distributors, lumber companies, rock carriers and even bakeries in San Diego County that depend on rail deliveries.

“It is a major inconvenience to our customers,” Martin said. “I’m talking about automobile dealers and auto manufacturers in San Diego who bring cars in and out, companies who receive general merchandise, steel, grain for feed mills for poultry and livestock, ranches in San Diego County. These people have supplies that last them a few days, but we have to do all we can do to get that track open.”

While San Diego merchants were sweating it out Wednesday, Amtrak commuters in San Diego and Orange counties were finding other ways to get to work.

Warned of the pending landslide Monday, Amtrak officials immediately made arrangements to bus the nearly 5,000 daily railroad commuters to their various destinations along the popular San Diego-to-Los Angeles route.

By Wednesday, however, many commuters had sought travel alternatives, said Bruce Heard, an Amtrak spokesman in Los Angeles.

“Ridership is down significantly. It was very light today,” Heard said. He had no specific figures.

Although there were few aboard to test the service, Amtrak riders Wednesday were offered bus rides directly from their communities to jobs in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, some Amtrak riders had complained of long delays.

“We are finding that we can cut the delays down significantly by busing people straight through to Los Angeles rather than bringing them up to San Juan Capistrano, for instance, and putting them on a train,” Heard said.

While it’ll take days, maybe a week, to start clearing off the railroad tracks, officials Wednesday couldn’t begin to guess when the stretch of Pacific Coast Highway connecting San Clemente and Dana Point might reopen. It has been closed since Jan. 16 because of heavy storms.

“Pacific Coast Highway could be closed for a long, long time,” Anderson said.

No additional homes were declared unstable Wednesday, although several areas along the hillside, more than a mile long, are being watched carefully, particularly with more rain on the way, officials said.

Just south of the slide area, three bluff-top homes in the Colony Cove neighborhood have been posted as unsafe since Jan. 16, city officials said.

“The lesson we learned on (Monday’s) slide is that it went real fast,” one official said. While engineers and geologists compile reports for the cleanup project, city officials ready themselves for possible lawsuits.

Dana Point City Council members huddled in closed session Tuesday night to discuss potential litigation, and San Clemente officials will do the same soon, said City Manager Michael W. Parness.

“With the type of damage that has occurred here, everybody looks to point the finger,” Parness said. “These are the type of issues that drag on for years.”

Times staff writer Michael Granberry contributed to this report from San Diego.