Study of Options for Fullerton-Irvine Rail Corridor OKd

Orange County Transportation Authority officials took the first step Monday toward possibly connecting Fullerton and Irvine with a mass transit system when they authorized a study of the proposed six-mile-wide transit corridor between the two cities.

In addition to beginning the process of picking out what type of system--rail or bus or nothing at all--would best serve the corridor, the study is also the first step to receive federal funding for the project, which OCTA officials estimate could cost up to $2 billion. Currently, OCTA has $340 million from Measure M funds set aside for the project, OCTA analyst Nancy Michali said.

However, board chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez warned at Monday’s OCTA meeting that approval for the study did not mean the agency was also endorsing a rail line for the corridor.

“We’re not competing to build a rail system. . . . We should move ahead cautiously before we commit to a multimillion-dollar rail transit system,” Vasquez said.

Michali said that Federal Transit Administration regulations require OCTA to look at other alternatives for the corridor, including a bus system and a no-build alternative.

“When the study is done, we will have a well-defined bus alternative,” Michali said. “We’ll have to tell them how we propose to get in infrastructure changes to allow buses to run faster than they do now in congested traffic.”

A recent OCTA poll showed that by more than a 3-1 margin Orange County voters preferred an urban rail line for the corridor, which would include stops at Disneyland in Anaheim and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Vasquez said the study would also help local transportation officials decide whether OCTA can afford to operate the proposed transit corridor.

“We need to know the price tag, and we need to know if we can afford to operate it if we buy it,” Vasquez said.

The study is expected to begin in August and take about two years, Michali said. Local officials will not know if the federal government will endorse the project “until sometime in 1996,” she added.

Although the route within the corridor has not been mapped out, Michali said it will wind through city streets, not on the freeway.

“It’s taken us two years just to identify the starting and ending points of the corridor. We will begin identifying (potential routes) in public meetings planned for September and October,” Michali said.