SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : New Bus Route to Serve County Clinic

A new South County bus route designed to provide service to the county’s new public health clinic in San Juan Capistrano has been approved by the Orange County Transportation Authority.

The new route, 394, runs from Saddleback College on the north to the Amtrak station near the San Clemente pier at its southern terminus.

Bus service is scheduled to begin Feb. 9, said OCTA spokeswoman Mona Ziada.

Integral parts of the new route will include two bus stops near the new clinic at 27512 Calle Arroyo. One stop will be located near the intersection of Calle Arroyo and La Novia and another will be at a separate Calle Arroyo location, Ziada said.

South County city officials hailed the new route as an answer for many low-income clients of the clinic who rely on public transportation. Without the new route, anyone who needed to get to the clinic by bus had to use the closest bus stop at the San Juan Capistrano Amtrak station, about one mile away.

“Without this new route, mothers with their children had to walk down Ortega Highway, over the (Interstate 5) freeway, past the construction work going on there, often carrying their small children,” said Judy Curreri, a Dana Point city councilwoman and a public health nurse who works at the clinic. “You can imagine how difficult that would be. I think this new bus route will be a great help to these people.”

Like all new bus routes, the service will begin with one of the county’s large capacity vans, Ziada said. The service will be available to the clinic from 8:21 a.m. to 5:03 p.m., every 45 to 50 minutes, five days a week, Ziada said.