Countywide : Train Station Visit Equals a Free Photo

To promote the use of the year-old Irvine Transportation Center, the city is offering free 8-by-10 family photographs to entice workers and residents to discover train transportation.

Until Oct. 15, anyone wishing to visit the train station may call ahead to schedule an appointment for a portrait, according to John Harris, an Irvine transportation engineer. There are no strings attached, Harris said, except that applicants must make the appointment by Oct. 15 and have the photograph taken this year at the train station.

Mike Gillmore Photography, which is shooting the photographs free in the hope that people will order extra prints, already has 200 sittings booked. Gillmore anticipates taking about 500 photographs by year’s end.

The offer is the city’s attempt to increase ridership at the Barranca Parkway train station, which opened in May, 1990.

“It just doesn’t seem to be getting as well known as we’d like it,” Harris said Wednesday. “People still say, ‘We didn’t know Irvine had a train station.’ ”

Despite the city’s efforts, ridership figures have fallen short of expectations, Harris said. About 2,000 passengers use the Irvine station each week.

There are also stations in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Fullerton, San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente.

Three trains now serve the Irvine station in the morning and evening. Amtrak runs two and the Orange County Transportation Authority runs the other. In the morning, two of the trains are headed to Los Angeles and one toward San Diego. The trains reverse the pattern for the return in the evening.

Irvine has been trying to get Amtrak to increase the number of trains that stop at the city station to make rail travel more convenient to workers, Harris said.

The morning service to Los Angeles is convenient, but the San Diego train is too late for most workers, he said. The early northbound morning train arrives in Los Angeles at 7:25 a.m., but the southbound train gets to San Diego at 9:05 a.m.

Besides the free photos, the city also will be promoting the train by installing train-route maps at Irvine-area bus shelters.

A new “feeder” bus service will begin serving train riders at the Irvine Transportation Center on Sept. 3, another attempt to increase train ridership, Harris said. The bus will replace an expensive door-to-door shuttle service run by the city since the train station opened.

OCTD Bus 382 will be different in that its morning routes won’t operate on a strict timetable. Instead, buses will coordinate with the trains so that a late train won’t mean a missed bus connection, Harris said.

The bus will connect the train station with South Coast Plaza. Points served in between include Irvine City Hall, the Irvine Business Complex, UC Irvine, John Wayne Airport and the business complex across from South Coast Plaza. Rides will be free for the first week.

To set up an appointment for a photographic sitting, call (714) 454-0676.