OCTA OKs Far-Reaching $4.4-Billion Rail Project : Transportation: Plan will include a greatly expanded commuter train service and construction of an ultramodern elevated system.

Banking on trains to help cure Orange County’s traffic mess, transportation officials on Monday approved an ambitious $4.4-billion plan to greatly expand commuter train service and build an ultramodern, elevated urban rail system.

The far-reaching rail network would whisk San Juan Capistrano residents to Brea or half a dozen cities in between, tie into the Los Angeles Metro Rail system in Long Beach and Norwalk, and for the first time provide commuter rail service from Riverside County.

Most immediately, the 9-0 vote by the Orange County Transportation Authority will result in a $750,000 contract with an engineering firm to further define the initial 47-mile, $2.2-billion elevated guideway project. The proposed route would link Irvine with Santa Ana, Anaheim, several other North Orange County cities and Norwalk, with transfers available to Los Angeles County’s Metro Rail line serving Los Angeles International Airport.

“We have a tremendous road to hoe, but this is the first step,” said OCTA board member Dana W. Reed. “There are serious bumps ahead,” he cautioned, noting that only a fraction of the funding is currently available.

The sweeping plan was first unveiled by OCTA last month after months of preliminary ridership and engineering analyses, including a review by a citizens advisory committee.

Tie-ins to rail systems in Riverside and Los Angeles will have to be approved by transportation commissions in those counties. Also, OCTA will hold a public hearing before hiring a contractor to build the system, officials said. Over the next year, transportation officials expect to be lobbied hard by cities and citizens seeking to modify elements of the rail network.

“We need to communicate with the public,” said San Juan Capistrano Councilman Gary L. Hausdorfer, who sits on the OCTA board. “We need to be flexible. The plan needs to change as times change. . . . This may be a plan for 2010, but we need to focus further than that.”

The first phase of the guideway would be built in eight to 10 years, after expansion of express bus service on freeway car-pool lanes and commuter rail service, according to Stanley T. Oftelie, OCTA’s chief executive officer. It would serve 18 of the county’s major activity and employment centers and cross cities containing 50% of the county’s population.

An additional 40 miles of the elevated guideway system--for a combined total of 87 miles--would be constructed after 2000, with one branch linking South Orange County with Long Beach along the San Diego Freeway, and another extending service northward to Brea.

Once completed, the elevated guideway system envisioned by OCTA would serve a total of 67 to 70 stations.

The plan also calls for eight new commuter trains daily from Oceanside to Los Angeles and four new stations. These would be available in two or three years, with service between Riverside and Irvine to follow soon thereafter. New stations would be built in Buena Park, Orange, north Irvine and either Mission Viejo or Laguna Niguel, depending on which of two station sites now being studied is eventually selected. The San Clemente station will be relocated. Besides San Clemente, stations currently exist in San Juan Capistrano, Irvine, Santa Ana, Anaheim and Fullerton.

Currently, an OCTA commuter train plies the route between San Juan Capistrano and Los Angeles once in the morning and again in the evening. Also, eight Amtrak trains serve the San Diego-Los Angeles corridor daily. When combined, the planned and existing services will total 17 trains daily in each direction.

Existing Amtrak service between San Diego and Los Angeles is popular and is one of Amtrak’s two most profitable routes. Although heavily subsidized, the OCTA commuter train is also well-used, handling more than 12,000 boardings per month.

The commuter rail portion of the program would cost about $311 million, partly funded by state rail bonds and Measure M, the half-cent sales tax increase for highway and transit projects approved by Orange County voters a year ago. The money would be used to buy new trains and build the stations.

Responding to public comments and a public opinion poll conducted since the rail plan was unveiled last month, OCTA staff doubled the mileage of the first phase of the elevated guideway to 47 miles to include a connection with the Los Angeles Metro Rail system at Norwalk, either through Fullerton or Buena Park. In addition, a stop at John Wayne Airport was added to the second phase of the system.

About $340 million is available from Measure M for the elevated urban rail system, leaving millions of dollars in construction and operating costs still unfunded. This raised concerns among members of the Industrial League of Orange County, a business group, and the Building Industry Assn., which delivered spokesmen and letters on Monday supporting the county’s plan but also demanding a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of the guideway system.

Monday’s vote came a week after OCTA released results of its public opinion survey that showed 69% of respondents favor subsidies for a mass transit system and rank rail transit as a better traffic solution than building more highways.

A spokesman for Drivers for Highway Safety, a small, grass-roots organization, criticized the plan. Bill Ward cited the enormous cost of rail service and said trains are too inefficient. The time it would take most people to get from their homes to a station and then take a trip on the planned rail system would be “longer than taking the freeway no matter how congested it is,” Ward said.

Ward also alleged that the OCTA board is too easily swayed by the pro-transit lobby and engineering and development firms that want to build the system. Ward’s comments visibly angered Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who sits on the OCTA board.

“I’m sick and tired of being accused of what our motives might be!” Wieder scolded Ward. “It’s so easy to just attack.”

Wieder challenged Ward to propose other solutions.

“Build more roads everywhere,” Ward replied.

“Why don’t you fight the (Environmental Protection Agency) on that. . . . The EPA thinks more roads will only make things worse,” Wieder said.

Rail Plan

The Orange County Transportation Authority’s master rail plan would cost $4.4 billion and would be built in phases over 20 to 30 years. Express bus service would be expanded on new and existing car-pool lanes along with commuter rail service before the elevated guideway system would be built.

Commuter Rail

The plan provides for a dozen stations along 71 miles of track in Orange County at a cost of $311 million. Eight new commuter trains would be added to the nine trains currently running. New stations would be built in Buena Park, Irvine, Orange and Mission Viejo or Laguna Niguel. Rail service would be added between Riverside and Irvine and between Riverside and Los Angeles on existing track along the Riverside Freeway in Santa Ana Canyon.

Elevated Urban Rail

Phase One calls for 43 stations along 47 miles of track at a cost of $2.19 billion. Major stops would be in Irvine, at John Wayne Airport, Santa Ana and Anaheim. Officials will need to choose one of two routes between Anaheim and Los Angeles County’s Green Line serving Los Angeles International Airport.

Phase Two would add about 40 miles and 24 to 27 additional stations at a cost of $1.91 billion. The elevated guideway would be extended to Brea in the north, to John Wayne Airport and San Juan Capistrano in the south and from the South Coast Plaza area to the Long Beach-Los Angeles Blue Line trolley either via the San Diego Freeway or a combination of the freeway and 7th Street in Long Beach.

Source: Orange County Transportation Authority