ORANGE COUNTY VOICES : Plans for Flexible Transportation Alternatives Are Moving Right Along : Commuting: Next month, O.C. commuter rail system will zip into L.A. Transit ways, express buses and feeder bus systems will be coming soon.

The dramatic increase in ridership on the Metrolink commuter rail system during the weeks after the Northridge earthquake is proof positive that every cloud has a silver lining.

Since the Northridge earthquake, our entire nation is talking about Metrolink. Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena has continually praised the Metrolink system, stating that Metrolink is the perfect example of what works well in the time of a crisis.

Additionally, he applauded Metrolink’s successful efforts in opening up three new stations in one week’s time to accommodate all the people who work in the Burbank, Glendale and downtown Los Angeles area.

Fortunately for Orange County residents, on March 28, Orange County’s commuter rail service will join the Metrolink system with three daily round-trip train trips from Oceanside to downtown Los Angeles.

Trains will stop at San Juan Capistrano, Irvine, Orange, Santa Ana, Anaheim, Fullerton and the City of Commerce before arriving in Los Angeles. Five more stations will open throughout the next two years. These future stations will be located in San Clemente, Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo, Tustin, Buena Park and Norwalk. Additionally, the Orange County Transportation Authority is working on implementing commuter rail from Riverside to Irvine.

Metrolink predicts that about 2,000 riders from Orange County will use the new service when it opens in March. Like riders on other Metrolink routes, Orange County passengers may transfer free to a variety of other transit systems, including the Metro Red Line subway in downtown Los Angeles. The Orange County Transportation Authority is rerouting commuter buses to serve the Metrolink stations along the route within Orange County.

Last month’s earthquake definitively demonstrated that Metrolink needs to be one of the many options available to Orange County commuters. In addition to a comprehensive commuter rail system, transit ways, express buses and feeder bus systems will be implemented soon.

Transportation demand management strategies such as alternative work hours and telecommuting (using telecommunications technology to connect workers to the main office from their home or from a satellite office close to their home) also need to be employed to augment existing efforts.

Urban rail, as opposed to the Metrolink commuter rail system, provides local transit service throughout the day at frequent intervals with trains stopping at stations spaced a mile apart. Urban rail may be a good long-term solution to Orange County’s transportation needs.

The OCTA board of directors is being appropriately cautious, however, because there is a limited amount of funds available for urban rail. Furthermore, a determination must be made as to whether there will be sufficient ridership to support an urban rail system. Still, an increasing concentration of jobs and higher residential densities within the county’s urban core--coupled with high volumes of traffic along the connecting corridors--indicate that urban rail may be an appropriate long-term solution to traffic congestion.

We also must not forget those residents of Orange County who depend on public transit for their transportation. For the past 20 years, a fixed-route bus service has been the foundation of Orange County’s transit system. As county demographic patterns shift over the next 30 years, and as solo driving becomes more difficult and expensive, bus ridership is expected to go up. One way to meet that increasing demand would be to gradually increase the amount of local bus service the Orange County Transportation Authority offers.

When the voters of Orange County approved Measure M, the half-cent sales tax, they called for a comprehensive transportation plan to guide the county through today’s transportation problems and to provide a balanced multimodal transportation network that we can now build on for the future. The aftermath of the earthquake underscores the importance of this comprehensive plan.

The aftermath also underscores the importance of a transportation plan that is so sufficiently comprehensive that it can reroute commuters around severed links in case part of the system fails.

To guarantee mobility before, during and after a crisis, we have to refocus our policy on the safe and efficient movement of people, not just vehicles.

Orange County’s economic and environmental health are closely tied to its transportation infrastructure. By creating systems that are flexible and efficiently move people, goods, information and services, we can maximize the area’s productivity and quality of life, and minimize environmental deterioration.