On Transportation: Three for the Road : The System is Only as Good as Its Weakest Links

The sight of commuters returning to Capistrano Depot last week was welcome, coming, as it did, two weeks after a landslide in San Clemente shut down commuter and freight train service to and from points south.

The trains, an alternative for many to the grind of freeway traffic, were back. But the lyric penned by the rock singer Sting seemed to apply: “How fragile we are.” How we manage to protect this vital infrastructure from damage and how we manage its uses over the long term are important.

Transportation issues matter so in Orange County because of the pronounced suburban sprawl of the area, which closes out the traditional city-life option of walking. Our commutation and general quality of life are only as good at any given time as the health and viability of the overall transportation system.

Sometimes, as happened a week ago when protesters marched to demonstrate against the soon-to-be built San Joaquin Hills tollway, transportation concerns touch a very visible raw nerve. But in less dramatic fashion, often it’s the little things that make a big difference. The landslide was a reminder of the delicacy of that system and how everything is interrelated in the region’s transportation framework. Construction crews for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway worked diligently to build a 300-foot retaining wall along the slide area that enabled the stretch of railroad to reopen.

But two weeks is a long time to be without the county’s rail backbone, especially for those who have made the lifestyle choice of taking themselves out of the traffic crunch. And last month, during the rains, another section of track outside San Juan Capistrano was closed for a time when a swollen creek eroded the rail line.

It’s good that the retaining wall went up in the slide area. But it would be better if the rail line were protected before the disruptions of winter weather next interrupted regional commutation patterns. In other words, seek out problem areas before problems occur.

In regional transportation, the whole is made up of working--or not working--parts. The railroad is one recent example. Two others could be found in policy considerations of regional transportation officials.

In one case, some members of the Orange County Transportation Authority are considering a plan to let solo drivers buy their way onto car-pool lanes. On its face, pay-to-ride car-pool lanes seem downright subversive. How can ride-sharing be promoted if those who can pay are allowed to ride an open lane?

And yet, there is this thought. Our transportation problems are sufficiently vexing to summon creative thinking. Perhaps a single test lane on a designated freeway could be used to try the idea out for a very limited time. That would allow experimentation without an irreversible shift away from laudable transportation goals.

And second, there are the transfers, the time-honored practice of allowing public transportation users to make a free connection. Currently, riders of Metrolink trains in San Bernardino, Ventura and Los Angeles counties get free transfers to the Red Line subway in downtown Los Angeles, but Orange County riders arriving by commuter rail have to pay a transfer charge. That is supposed to be resolved later this year, when the Orange County Transportation Authority officially becomes part of the regional Metrolink commuter rail network.

But for the sake of impatient passengers, and for the long haul in integrating passengers into a regional system, it helps to facilitate everyone’s ride.