Report Examines Proposed Rail Line : Finds More Stations on 2-County Link Would Not Increase Riders

The addition of five stations to a proposed commuter rail line between Riverside and Orange counties will not significantly increase ridership on the line but will add up to $8 million to its cost, according to data in a feasibility report released Friday.

The project’s chief proponent on the Orange County Transportation Commission, however, said Friday that she disagrees with the study’s projections on riders and plans to raise questions about them.

“I’m not so sure that there will not be a difference,” said commission member Clarice A. Blamer. “The ridership has to pick up.”

Blamer, who is also a member of the Brea City Council, said the private consultants who prepared the report for the commission underestimated the number of people who would use the rail line to reach Los Angeles. Consultants also disregarded the impact of other rail projects now planned, Blamer said.

Ridership Estimates

The report estimates that the additional stations, which would require 6 extra miles of track, will add only 38 riders per day in 1993, the projected start-up year of the line. By 2010, the stations would be adding only five additional riders each day, according to the estimates.

The report is an expanded version of a similar one released in July. Both found the rail line financially and technically feasible. The second report is expected to be formally adopted by the OCTC during its regular meeting Monday.

It will be incorporated into a larger, countywide transportation report the OCTC expects to release in the spring, said Tom Fortune, an OCTC spokesman.

Blamer said the chances of a commuter rail line between the city of Riverside and Irvine eventually being built are “very strong.” Fortune said the chances depend on information that will be gathered for the larger report from transportation officials, cities and the public.

Consultants hired by the OCTC--Schiermeyer Consulting Services of Los Angeles and Sharon Greene & Associates of Santa Ana--had looked earlier at the feasibility of building a 12-station, 50-mile route that in Orange County would have two stations in Anaheim, two in Orange and one each in Santa Ana, Tustin and Irvine.

The second study, done by the same consultants, was based on a 56-mile route that adds two stations in Fullerton, one in Placentia and two in Anaheim.

The first report estimated the cost of building the shorter line at between $73 million and $138 million. The longer line would cost between $89 million and $146 million and probably would require some financing by sales taxes in both counties, the second report predicted.

Riverside County voters last month approved a half-cent sales tax for the project. A similar tax is under consideration in Orange County.

The second report showed no difference in the estimated $9.3-million annual operating cost of the rail line. An expected $5-million annual shortfall in operating funds would have to be subsidized in equal parts by Riverside and Orange counties, the report concluded.