Orange County Plan to Link Trains to Metro Rail Approved : Transportation: Officials vote for a $4.4-billion proposal to expand commuter service and build an elevated line. The network will reach into L.A. County.

Orange County transportation officials Monday approved an ambitious $4.4-billion plan to expand commuter train service and build an ultramodern, elevated urban rail system that would link up with Los Angeles County’s Metro Rail system.

The far-reaching rail network would take San Juan Capistrano residents to Brea or half a dozen cities in between, tie into the Metro Rail in Long Beach and Norwalk, and for the first time provide commuter rail service into 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 the Metro Rail line serving Los Angeles International Airport.

“We have a tremendous row 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 small fraction of the money needed for the elevated rail portion of the plan is currently available.

The move by the transportation agency was seen as significant because it is the first step in carrying out the mandate of Measure M, approved by Orange County voters a year ago. The measure provided a half-cent sales tax increase for highway and transit projects. But efforts until this point have focused on beefing up highway rather than rail transportation.

The plan is still several steps away from being a sure thing.

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 residents 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.”

And there is the matter of the money.

About $340 million is available from Measure M for the elevated urban rail system, leaving most of the money needed for 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.

The first phase of the guideway would be completed 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 cities containing 50% of Orange County’s population.

Another 40 miles of the elevated guideway system--for a total of 87 miles--would be constructed after the year 2000, with one branch linking south Orange County with Long Beach along the San Diego Freeway, and another extending service northward to Brea. That portion of the plan would cost an estimated $1.91 billion.

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.

When combined, the planned and existing services will total 17 trains daily in each direction.

The commuter rail portion of the program would cost about $311 million, and would be partly funded by state rail bonds and Measure M.