BY CHRISTIE MARCELLA
Economic Development Manager
CITY OF CARLSBAD
One of the City of Carlsbad’s major tasks in advancing the local economy is helping our businesses recruit and retain the talent they need to be successful. As part of those efforts, the Economic Development staff meet with businesses in the city, especially businesses in our key industry clusters, to see how we can help.
We have been hearing a common theme from several of our businesses regarding the simple chore of getting to and from work:
• Businesses experience difficulty retaining employees who want to live closer to downtown San Diego.
• Recruiting talent from regions with better transit service is difficult.
• Employees seeking to use mass transit to commute to and from work find the existing system insufficient as a regular commuting option.
The Carlsbad Connector is a pilot shuttle service operating between the Poinsettia Train Station and major employment centers in the McClellan-Palomar Airport area and along Avenida Encinas.
Commuters find public transit good at getting them between San Diego and North County on the Coaster, but not so good at getting them from the train station to their workplace, especially for companies in our core industrial hub around Palomar-McClellan Airport.
By partnering with the North County Transit District (NCTD), which operates the COASTER service, and the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), our metropolitan planning organization, we are happy to report that this month we will launch the Carlsbad Connector, a pilot shuttle service operating between the Poinsettia Train Station and major employment centers in the McClellan-Palomar Airport area and along Avenida Encinas.
