Survey Finds Wide Support for New Rail Line : Transit: In poll, registered voters by a 3-to-1 margin favor using tax money to build a Fullerton-to-Irvine train route, but their enthusiasm plummets when price tag of about $2.1 billion is mentioned.

By better than a 3-to-1 margin, Orange County voters want to spend tax money on a proposed Fullerton-to-Irvine urban rail line, a new survey shows.

But support drops to about 50% when they learn the cost would be $2.1 billion.

The telephone survey asked 600 registered voters if they back the plans for a 28-mile train route, which would include stops near Disneyland in Anaheim and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

The survey of 600 registered voters was conducted from Feb. 26 to March 6 by J. Moore Methods of Sacramento for the Orange County Transportation Authority and has a possible margin of error of plus or minus 4%.

Thirty-nine percent said they do not support spending tax money for it, and 12% had no opinion.

The OCTA board is likely to vote on April 11 to seek partial federal funding of the proposed rail line and to launch a full study of transit alternatives, which is required for federal approval.

OCTA officials on Wednesday were cautiously optimistic about the survey results and noted that 62% of the respondents ranked mass transit rail as an effective way of reducing traffic congestion. In 1991, that figure was 59%.

Still, officials said it is too early to decide whether to ask voters for a half-cent sales tax hike or to extend the existing half-cent tax, which expires in 2012, to help pay for the rail line.

“I think we have to explore the issue more, and this gives us the encouragement to do so,” said Sarah L. Catz, a Laguna Beach lawyer who serves on the OCTA board as the public’s at-large representative.

County voters approved Measure M, which raised the sales tax half a cent for transportation improvements, in 1990. That fund has about $340 million earmarked for urban rail. Officials are also counting on some state rail bond money and possibly developer contributions.

About 47% of the respondents favor raising the county sales tax another half a cent to a full penny for rail transit, and 70% favor seeking federal funds for the project.

Nearly two-thirds support imposing a special smog fee on all vehicles that do not meet federal smog guidelines. The least popular taxing methods were imposing an employee payroll tax or hiking the gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon.

Officials were surprised by the relatively low priority given to helping those who cannot afford, do not want or cannot operate cars. Only 12% said public transit is needed for those people, while 73% said it is needed to provide commuters with alternatives to using their cars.

Clearly, officials said, voters are concerned about themselves first and they prefer that taxes already sent to Sacramento and Washington come back to Orange County.

Other findings:

* By more than a 3-to-1 margin, respondents said convenience and ease are very important in considering mass transit.

* 85% rank safety as very important.

* 56% said the cost of the system compared to the benefits is an important issue.

Some who said they opposed rail transit admitted the reason was that it would not benefit them personally, even if it did help others.

And 25% said they simply oppose funding any mass transit.

OCTA’s Catz said the concern about safety, in her view, relates to fears of “being mugged” at or near a transit stop. Others interpreted it to be a concern about train derailments.

But throughout California, surveys consistently show that fear of crime is a major concern of those who admit they could use mass transit daily but do not.

County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, an OCTA board member, said that in general, the survey results “don’t give us a definitive answer” about whether to build such a costly rail system. “If I were running a multimillion-dollar corporation, I wouldn’t want to make a key decision based on this evidence.”

Stanton said the survey should have tried to answer the following questions: How many people who say they want to spend public money on a rail system believe that they will be close enough to the route to use it in their daily commutes? How many of those who favor the project already use buses and would simply substitute a more cost-effective bus trip with a more expensive rail trip?

Such questions may be asked in future surveys, OCTA officials said.

Jack Mallinckrodt, a frequent critic of OCTA’s rail plans, added that the public’s support for rail is not surprising, because the lead-in remarks or background facts used in survey questions have never told respondents how much traffic congestion relief can be bought with $2.1 billion, depending on how it is spent.

“There’s no question that $2.1 billion spent on roads buys more congestion relief than $2.1 billion spent on rail,” said Mallinckrodt, a semi-retired radio science engineer.

In an aside, the OCTA survey showed that 72% of the respondents believe California generally is “on the wrong track,” compared to 57% who felt that way about the United States.

By comparison, only 31% said their local community is on the wrong track.

OCTA officials said such questions were asked to gauge whether the respondents were in a upbeat mood, which could influence the results. They were slightly more optimistic than in a 1993 survey.

Price Cools Rail Enthusiasm

Orange County voters strongly support plans for a 28-mile, Fullerton-to-Irvine rail line. But support drops markedly when actual cost figures are attached to the project. Seeking more transportation funds, smog fees and extending the Measure M tax receive heavy support as ways to pay for the system.

* Approve or disapprove construction of Fullerton-Irvine rail line:

Approve: 71% Disapprove: 20 Don’t know: 9 * Approve or disapprove spending $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion to build and $10 million to $15 million a year to operate and maintain rail line: Approve: 49% Disapprove: 39 No opinion: 12 * Support or oppose various ways to pay for building new urban rail system and subsidizing its operation:

No Support Oppose opinion Seek more state/federal transportation funds 70% 26% 4% Impose smog fees 65 32 3 Extend Measure M tax to 40 years total 64 32 4 Increase county sales tax by half a cent 47 50 3

Source: Orange County Transportation Authority