Trains Welcome but Success No Certainty : * Metrolink Expansion Gives Commuters New Options

The sentiment of traffic-weary Orange County residents was evident back in 1992 when a UC Irvine survey found that people had warmed significantly to the idea of mass transit. A whopping 69% of those surveyed said they favored a commuter rail system.

While that survey was being taken, plans were underway to expand commuter rail service in Orange County. The morning and evening train operated by Amtrak crews under contract with the Orange County Transportation Authority already was operating as a supplement to regular Amtrak service, which is designed primarily as an intercity service but also happened to serve commuters. And now, last week, a new milestone: two more commuter trains were added to the existing one to inaugurate Metrolink service in Orange County. Metrolink is the commuter rail network that is serving an expanding part of Southern California.

The question of the moment is: Will it take? The jury for now will have to remain out. The new service certainly is welcome and encouraging, but there should be no illusions about the hard task facing those wishing to make rail commuting an important fixture.

Grafting commuter rail on a region that developed around the automobile is no easy task. The evidence from the aftermath of the Northridge earthquake was not encouraging in this regard; commuters rushed to ride Metrolink trains after the quake damaged freeways but very soon began returning to cars.

But the public in Orange County certainly seems interested in the idea of rail commuting, and well it should. The county has the dubious distinction of having about the worst traffic congestion in California. This month, another poll conducted by J. Moore Methods of Sacramento for the Orange County Transportation Authority found that Orange County voters favored even further development in commuter rail: the proposed Fullerton to Irvine line that would include stops near Disneyland in Anaheim and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

But one of the big question marks about the viability of commuter rail service is money. And the strong public support in that survey fell back to about 50% when cold fiscal reality set in. That is, a mention of the anticipated $2.1-billion cost of such a line, a signal of lingering fiscal questions. Indeed, there have been persistent concerns raised by critics that passenger service won’t ever make up the subsidies now needed to keep it running.

As for the inaugural Metrolink trains in Orange County, transportation officials were hoping eventually for more business people who might make up the backbone of a regular ridership as several thousands of commuters and other riders rode the rails on the first day. The presence of more trains can provide such commuters with an extra cushion and ease fears that they will be late to work, or out of luck, if they miss an earlier train. Metrolink officials were wise to offer free service through most of the week and might want to consider other enticements.

Clearly, there is much work to do and many unanswered questions, but the hoopla of last week was clearly justified. The arrival of Metrolink ought to be an important moment in the annals of transportation history in Orange County.