Express Bus Service to Long Beach OKd : Transportation: In addition to intercounty routes, OCTA approves Riverside to Orange County rail service.

Congestion-weary motorists on the San Diego and Riverside freeways will have new, intercounty express bus service to Long Beach and other destinations under a plan approved Monday by transportation officials.

The Orange County Transportation Authority board also approved a contract with Riverside County to provide the first Riverside-to-Orange County commuter rail service by January, 1995--four years ahead of schedule.

The new, express bus service along the San Diego Freeway and Riverside Freeway will take several years to fully implement, starting in 1993, officials said. Service along the San Diego Freeway will connect with Los Angeles County’s Blue Line light rail service in Long Beach. A previous bus connection to the Blue Line was discontinued earlier this year in order to reduce OCTA’s operating costs.

Approved at a public hearing on Monday that drew only one speaker, the new intercounty bus service was planned to comply with a law passed in 1990.

The sole person to give testimony on the plan, Jose Melendez of Van Nuys, said, “I think these will work.”

Board member Harriett M. Wieder, who is also a county supervisor, complained that the staff had not solicited sufficient passenger comments and suggested that questionnaires be circulated on buses.

A staff representative said there had been little time to conduct passenger research before preparing the plan presented Monday but pledged to seek more comments in the future. Because the plan involved a vote at a public hearing, a second reading and a final vote must occur during OCTA’s Dec. 14 board meeting.

A sample of the new service to be offered:

* New Route 310, from Golden West Street in Huntington Beach to McDonnell Douglas, Long Beach Airport and the Blue Line station at Wardlow, mostly via the San Diego Freeway, in 1993.

* An unnamed new route from the existing Fullerton Park and Ride to McDonnell Douglas and Long Beach, mostly over the Riverside Freeway and possibly Lakewood Boulevard, in 1994.

* A new route from Santa Ana to connect with L.A.’s Green Line, to be renamed the Orange Line, a high-tech urban rail system that will extend to Los Angeles International Airport. The bus route will travel mostly along the Santa Ana Freeway and the Riverside Freeway, in 1995.

* A new route from the Golden West bus depot to Southwest Regional Laboratories in Seal Beach and on to LAX via the San Diego Freeway, in 1995.

The approval of the rail service contract with Riverside County comes two weeks after the board gave its tentative OK. Riverside County has already approved the agreement, which calls for four trains that would originate in Riverside each weekday morning.

Two trains would travel to Fullerton and on to Los Angeles. The other two trains would travel to Irvine. One of the Irvine trains would turn around and travel north to Los Angeles; the other train would lay over at Irvine or Oceanside.

Riverside and Orange counties will share costs and will become joint owners of the Santa Fe right of way between Fullerton and Redondo Junction in Los Angeles County.

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young praised the agreement at Monday’s meeting but successfully sought an amendment that would allow OCTA to use the same right of way, if there’s sufficient width, to accommodate an elevated, urban rail line serving only Orange County cities.

Riverside-Orange County Rail Service Approved Under an agreement between transportation officials of Orange and Riverside counties, four trains will originate each weekday morning in Riverside. The service is to start no later than January, 1995. Two trains would go to Fullerton and then on to Los Angeles. Two others would travel to Irvine, where one would turn around and proceed north to Los Angeles. The remaining train would lay over either in Irvine or Oceanside. The trains would reverse direction and head to Riverside during the evening rush hour. Source: Orange County Transportation Authority.